GOVERNMENT is urging stakeholders in the agricultural sector to invest in value addition and beneficiation as part of broader efforts to boost productivity, create employment, and enhance export earnings.
This call comes as the Rutenga Multi-Service Centre in Mwenezi, established by the Sustainable Agriculture Technology organisation, emerged as a transformative model of rural industrialisation.
The centre has become a vibrant economic hub, processing paprika and sesame for both domestic use and international export. It has also provided a reliable and fair market for local smallholder farmers, eliminating exploitative middlemen.
“When we started growing sesame and paprika, our lives have changed for the better, we have even bought houses and cars, and livestock using the money we get after selling our produce,” one farmer said.
“The fact that we have a ready market here at the centre has given us so much relief. We can come here and sell our produce at any time of the year,” another farmer said.
“We were facing challenges with middlemen who would buy our produce at very cheap prices. At this centre, everything is fair and we get our money in the form of cash,” a beneficiary said.
Sustainable Agriculture Technology Country Director, Mr Brian Saunders, confirmed that export efforts were already underway, with certification and logistics being finalised to access high-value markets such as Britain and Japan.
“We are currently in the process of acquiring BRIC certification. Basically, it is a certification that is required for us to export paprika around the world. On the sesame side, we have been exporting to Mozambique and South Africa, and we are initiating exports to Japan, although we have issues that we need to deal with first. We are also providing markets for farmers,” he said.
Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Dr Anxious Masuka, applauded the initiative, noting its alignment with the government’s vision for rural industrialisation and structured agricultural markets.
“This is an exciting centre we have visited. It imparts knowledge to youths. It provides a market for smallholder farmers in paprika and sesame production. I was particularly interested in the sesame value chain. We are getting inquiries for sesame, and we think the market out there is about 400 000 metric, but our sesame markets are unstructured. This centre will be a formal market for sesame, and farmers will be capacitated through training and partnership,” he said.
Masvingo Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Honourable Ezra Chadzamira, highlighted the importance of value addition in attaining Vision 2030.
“We are quite impressed with Mwenezi district, as you can see, there is value addition and beneficiation taking place here, and that is what His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa is encouraging. In order for us to get more value for our products, we need to process them so that we benefit fully,” he said.
The Rutenga Multi-Service Centre stands as a beacon of progress, demonstrating the critical role of value addition and beneficiation in transforming rural economies and supporting Zimbabwe’s economic development agenda.
Value addition remains central to all priority value chains in agriculture, mining, and manufacturing as the country accelerates towards an upper-middle-income economy.
