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EU pledges more funds towards Zimbabwe's agriculture sector

Xinhua, January 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

The European Union (EU) has pledged to provide more funds to support Zimbabwe's agricultural sector, which is the backbone of the country's economy.

The EU lifted its decade-long economic sanctions on Zimbabwe last November and immediately announced a 234 million euro (about 266 million U.S. dollars) fund to support the country's socioeconomic programs between 2015 and 2020.

Coming under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF), Zimbabwe' s agriculture sector had been earmarked to receive 88 million euros for the next five years but a top EU official said Wednesday this amount will be further increased.

"Under the 11th EDF, 88 million euros has been earmarked for agriculture as the engine of economic growth. This initial amount will be topped up by funds originating from specific 'food security' and 'climate change' budget lines," said the EU ambassador to Zimbabwe Phillip Van Damme.

He was speaking at an occasion where the EU handed over equipment worth over 600,000 U.S. dollars to the Zimbabwe government to boost food security in the country.

The ambassador said the EU will shift its agricultural support from humanitarian towards strategic support aimed at enhancing institutional capacity building.

"This will allow us to accompany government and the various stakeholders more effectively in updating and formally adopting the comprehensive agricultural policy framework so as to provide a solid framework for intervention," Van Damme said.

He, however, said that Zimbabwe's agricultural sector continued to experience severe challenges within its entire value chain, including insecure land tenure, unreliable public services, lack of access to affordable inputs and difficulties in finding appropriate agricultural financing.

Climate change was also playing havoc with Zimbabwe's agricultural sector resulting in declining food security, the ambassador said.

He said to help Zimbabwe address its food security situation, the EU last year launched four projects worth 20 million dollars aimed at supporting communal irrigation schemes, development of productive small holder livestock sector as well as sustainable forest management in order to build small holder framers' resilience to external shocks and enhance their productivity and efficiency in service delivery. (1 euro equals 1.14 U.S. dollars) Endi