Buhera villagers who lost thousands of cattle to bovine theileriosis have received 97 heifers to restock under the first phase of the National Presidential Heifer Pass on Scheme.
The scheme was launched by Vice President Chiwenga recently.
The handover to the beneficiaries took place on Monday and the process was facilitated by Veterinary and AGRITEX officers.
Of the 97 heifers, 33 heifers were handed over to Buhera North at an event that took place at Gaza Business Centre while 64 were handed to Buhera West beneficiaries at a function at Buhera Office.
The beneficiaries are expected to pass on the first heifer progeny to the next farmer for continuity of the programme.
Meanwhile, the hard-working former army commander Wednesday toured part of the winter maize crop being grown by Tongaat Hulett Zimbabwe at Hippo Valley Estates in Chiredzi.
Under a US$40 million investment called Project Kilimanjaro, Tongaat and local financial institutions are clearing of 4 000ha of vir_gin land for cane fields for allocation to indigenous outgrowers as part of the empowerment drive.
Vice President Chiwenga paid tribute to Tongaat for investing in food security, which allows the country to preserve foreign currency by reducing the food import bill.
“We are our own liberators in terms of economic development and why should we export our sweat when we have the land and the water. It’s better for local companies to grow the maize we import and then we buy from them,” he said.
“We need to create jobs for our people here. It’s not going to be easy, but let us meet the challenges head-on. We no longer want more exports of jobs by importing food to develop other countries’ economies.
“Forex should never be used to import food and Vision 2030 must be brought forward. We must achieve the vision of an upper middle income economy before 2030.”
— Mirror/Herald
