Zimasset Successes Unpacked

The Command Factor

You have heard of the success of the command agriculture. The program has managed to stimulate the growth of the agriculture sector in terms of production and employment levels.The program has also managed to stimulate the rural areas economies.
There are those among us who have been critics of the command agriculture program. It has become a victim of its own success, as people are at pain to dismiss it as a non-event, but its result is there for us all to see.



The Two Million Jobs Myth or Fact

The command agriculture has been a game changer in terms of employment levels on the farms and in downstream industries such as milling, processing and transportation of the produce. The facts on the ground indicate that more than two million people were employed in one way or the other during the program.

 I know we have heard a lot of air on the jobs created!! By using the simple method that is used in USA employment data, we might have created those jobs. The USA classify jobs as farm and non-farm jobs.



Import Substitution And Job Creation

One of the objectives of Zimasset is import substitution and saving the vital foreign currency, the government has come up with Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016. The purpose of this instrument is to protect local industries and create jobs.

The Value-addition and the Food and Nutrition Clusters have seen the most noticeable deliverables of  ZIMASSET. In Mutare, for example,  a cooking oil manufacturer Willowton has set up shop and Cairns Food has increased both production and employment.

 The two entities are going to contract farmers to produce crops for their production intake. This will create more jobs downstream.

ZIMASSET In Action

The people of Zimbabwe are seeing the result of Zimasset and will continue to support and benefit from it.