The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) collected US$4.71 billion in net revenue for the first half of 2026, surpassing its target of US$4.05 billion by 16.14%.
The performance represents a 46.73% increase compared to the US$3.21 billion collected in the corresponding period in 2025.
In local currency terms, net collections reached ZiG125.06 billion against a target of ZiG104.99 billion, exceeding expectations by 19.12%.
Gross collections for the period stood at ZiG132.53 billion, with Zimra issuing ZiG7.48 billion in refunds, representing 5.64% of total gross collections.
According to Zimra Board Chairperson Antony Mandiwanza, compliance enforcement accounted for 78.2% of the excess revenue.
Other key revenue drivers included increased visibility through digital tax systems, staff focus, and tighter debt control, while policy changes accounted for less than 1% of the surplus.
Corporate Income Tax led performance among individual tax heads, exceeding its target by 47.77%.
Other strong performers relative to target included Value Added Tax (VAT) on Imports at 41.20%, Mining Royalties at 30.25%, Net Customs Duty at 26.93%, and Net VAT on Local Sales at 22.03%.
In terms of overall revenue contribution, four tax heads generated 60% of total collections. Pay As You Earn (PAYE) was the largest contributor at 18%, followed by Corporate Income Tax at 15%, VAT on Local Sales at 14%, and VAT on Imports at 13%. The remaining tax heads collectively accounted for 40% of total revenue.
The revenue collector expanded its tax base by registering 37,783 new taxpayers during the six-month period, which included 2,056 new PAYE taxpayers and 955 new VAT taxpayers.
Filing compliance remained high across major operations, with Large Client Office PAYE compliance hitting 98.1% and Medium Client Office PAYE reaching 92.7%.
Mandiwanza said Zimra made progress on its digital transformation initiatives, bringing its Tax and Revenue Management System (TaRMS) to 98% completion and its Fiscalisation Data Management System (FDMS) to 99%.
He said the integration between TaRMS and FDMS reached 100%, supporting a national taxpayer onboarding rate of 92% across 22,679 taxpayers.
The revenue authority processed 20.4 million fiscal invoices in H1 2026, while virtual fiscalisation usage grew from 20% in the first quarter to 49% in the second quarter.
Mandiwanza said all 16 commercial banks in the country are now fully integrated for payment processing.
Trade facilitation metrics show that Zimra processed ZiG253.81 billion in imports and ZiG190.22 billion in exports.
Out of 261,435 registered Bills of Entry, 258,631 were processed, maintaining an assessment rate of 98.93% and an average clearance time for local bills of entry of two hours, 11 minutes, and 30 seconds.
On the enforcement front, ZIMRA scanned 73,085 high-risk cargo shipments, seized 14,881 high-risk transit trucks, issued 1,480 Notices of Seizure, and achieved a sealing rate of 23.92%.
Cumulative debt at the end of June 2026 stood at ZiG9.47 billion and US$1.26 billion.
Mandiwanza said Zimra projects revenue collections of US$5.65 billion for the second half of 2026, representing an expected growth rate of 19.88% compared to the first half.
He noted that the second half performance outlook remains subject to risks including global trade uncertainty, commodity price volatility, domestic liquidity constraints, and compliance pressures.
The government says it will launch a nationwide cloud seeding programme in November 2026 to cushion the agriculture sector against the anticipated El Niño-induced drought during the 2026/27 rainfall season.
The intervention forms part of a broader, intensified strategy to mitigate severe dry spells, safeguard domestic crop production, and reinforce national food security ahead of projected below-normal rainfall across the region.
Under the initiative, the Meteorological Services Department will target suitable cloud formations across all provinces to enhance rainfall yield, particularly in key agricultural belts.
Cabinet received an update on the status of the programme from the Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development, Dr Anxious Masuka, who outlined measures being put in place to enhance rainfall prospects across the country.
The intervention comes as global climate forecasts continue to warn of a severe El Niño that could result in below-normal rainfall, threatening food production, water availability and rural livelihoods.
To support the operation, government has designated three aircrafts that will be stationed in Harare, Bulawayo and Masvingo, providing coverage across all provinces.
The Harare-based aircraft will cover Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West and Mashonaland Central, while the Bulawayo aircraft will serve Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South. Operations from Masvingo will extend to Midlands, Manicaland and Masvingo provinces.
Agriculture remains one of Zimbabwe’s most important economic sectors, contributing significantly to employment, food security and industrial raw materials.
As a result, efforts to improve rainfall distribution are viewed as critical to sustaining agricultural output and supporting economic stability.
Government is currently mobilising the financial and technical resources required for the implementation of the exercise, with authorities expressing confidence that the programme will complement other drought mitigation initiatives already underway.
The cloud seeding operation is expected to play an important role in enhancing water availability and supporting farming activities during a season likely to be characterised by heightened climatic uncertainty.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has reduced its key interest rate from 30% to 27.5% with immediate effect.
The decision, announced on Monday following the committee’s meeting, marks a cumulative 7.5 percentage point reduction in policy rates since June 2026.
Central bank Governor Dr John Mushayavanhu attributed the rate cut to a benign inflation environment and sustained macroeconomic stability across the country.
“The MPC further emphasised that the reduction in the Bank policy rate does not signal monetary easing, but a realignment of the policy rate to the observed inflation dynamics,” Dr Mushayavanhu said in a statement.
He added that the MPC has embarked on a gradual path of monetary policy normalisation against the backdrop of entrenched macroeconomic stability and better-anchored inflation expectations.
“The pace of monetary policy adjustment will remain dependent on prevailing monetary and financial conditions, taking into consideration uncertainties arising from climatic shocks and geopolitical tensions,” the Governor said.
In addition to lowering the main policy rate, the central bank reduced the interest rate on its Targeted Finance Facility from 15% to 12.5% while keeping the cap on bank lending rates to productive sectors at 22.5%.
The committee opted to maintain existing statutory reserve requirements, 30% for demand deposits and 15% for savings and time deposits, and left minimum deposit interest rates unchanged.
The policy decision comes against a backdrop of stabilising domestic inflation and strengthening foreign reserves.
Annual ZiG inflation fell to a record low of 2.9% in August 2026 before edging up to 3.7% in September, primarily driven by rising international crude oil prices, which crossed US$100 per barrel earlier in the month.
Month-on-month inflation averaged 0.4% between January and September 2026, keeping full-year inflation on track to finish below 7%.
Zimbabwe recorded a 64.5% increase in goods trade surplus of US$526.5 million in August 2026, from the US$320 million realised in July, latest official data shows.
According to data from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency, total exports increased by 14.2% to US$1.68 billion in August, up from US$1.47 billion recorded in the previous month.
In contrast, imports remained largely flat, edging up by 0.2% to US$1.152.4 billion in August 2026 compared to US$1.149.8 billion in July.
Extractive sector products continued to dominate the country’s export basket. Semi-manufactured gold generated the largest share of exports at 44%, followed by other mineral substances at 19.5% and other ores and concentrates at 12%.
Nickel mattes accounted for 8.0%, while stemmed or stripped tobacco contributed 3.5% of the exports. On the import side, energy and capital goods accounted for the bulk of foreign currency outflows.
Mineral fuels and oils constituted the highest import cost at 22.2% of total imports, followed by machinery and mechanical appliances at 15.5%, motor vehicles at 6.8%, and electrical machinery and equipment at 4.9%.
Geographically, export earnings remained highly concentrated. The United Arab Emirates emerged as the single largest export buyer, absorbing US$749.6 million worth of goods, followed by China at US$540.3 million and South Africa at US$218.3 million.
Together, the three destinations accounted for nearly 90% of total export revenue for the month.
South Africa maintained its position as Zimbabwe’s primary source of imports, supplying US$411.8 million in goods, followed by China at US$206.1 million, Bahrain at US$78.2 million, and Mozambique at US$54.9 million.
Collectively, these four source markets supplied 65% of the country’s total import bill in August.
In regional trade, exports to the African Continental Free Trade Area bloc totaled US$286.7 million, anchored heavily by nickel mattes at 46.8% and iron or steel products at 9.2%.
Total imports from the continental market stood at US$585.7 million, led by industrial machinery, petroleum products, and fertilisers.
Tapiwanashe Mangwiro
The government has set out a comprehensive strategy to transform Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector into a climate-resilient, commercially oriented agro-industrial hub aimed at achieving national food sovereignty by 2030.
The policy framework prioritises climate-proofed production, rural industrialisation, and improved farmer livelihoods to shift the country away from rain-fed subsistence farming toward sustainable, high-value commodity production.
Speaking at the inaugural National Agriculture Conference and Expo (NACE) 2026, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Minister Dr Anxious Masuka said the country must move beyond the traditional focus on simply producing enough food and instead build an agriculture sector capable of supporting broader economic transformation.
He said agriculture would remain central to the attainment of Vision 2030, noting that the sector contributed significantly to economic growth last year.
“The 8.3% growth that we saw in the economy last year, 2.2 percentage points were contributed by agriculture, which grew by a stellar 27.9%,” Dr Masuka said.
He said the first major resolution was to achieve perennial food security and progressively strengthen food sovereignty by increasing domestic production.
“For far too long, we were looking at food security from two perspectives. The first is that if we didn’t produce enough, we must import,” he said. “But with macroeconomic shocks, pandemics, geopolitical disruptions of trade routes and conflict, increasingly, we are looking towards food sovereignty.”
Dr Masuka said the government would therefore continue implementing measures that encourage domestic production, with the proportion of locally produced goods on supermarket shelves already reaching 80%.
“We must do much more,” he said.
Another key resolution is to put farmers at the centre of the agricultural value chain and ensure they receive a greater share of the value generated from their produce.
He said farmers were currently disadvantaged by the structure of the value chain, particularly where produce was sold at relatively low prices while processed products commanded significantly higher prices.
“Farmers must get more fair value for their effort. So we will be placing farmers at the centre of the value chain increasingly,” Dr Masuka said.
The government is also targeting accelerated irrigation development as part of efforts to climate-proof agricultural production.
Dr Masuka said Zimbabwe intends to develop 496 000 hectares of irrigation by 2030, enabling annual summer production of about 350 000 hectares and potentially producing 1,75 million tonnes of cereals.
The target is intended to reduce the sector’s vulnerability to rainfall shocks and ensure food production continues even during drought conditions.
“Climate-proofing agriculture means adopting climate-smart agricultural practices … to accelerate irrigation development,” he said.
Rural industrialisation and value addition will also be prioritised, with government seeking to move processing closer to production areas.
Dr Masuka said transporting grain to urban centres for milling before transporting processed products back to rural areas was inefficient, with transport accounting for between 30 and 40 percent of the cost of maize meal and bread.
“Rural industrialisation, rural development to anchor Vision 2030,” he said, adding that Zimbabwe must increasingly produce, process and add value to agricultural commodities within farming communities.
Government is therefore supporting small processing facilities for maize, wheat and oilseeds, while village, school and youth business units are expected to contribute to local value addition and beneficiation.
The Minister said Zimbabwe’s ambition was no longer simply to become a regional “breadbasket”, but an agro-industrial hub exporting processed products rather than raw commodities.
“We don’t want to export wheat in Tanzania. We want to export flour, a value-added product, so that we don’t export value, we don’t export jobs,” he said.
Another major resolution is the strengthening of the country’s strategic grain reserves in preparation for future droughts.
Government is targeting at least 600 000 tonnes by August 2027, with stocks expected to reach 450 000 tonnes by the end of this year.
Dr Masuka said the reserve would provide greater protection for vulnerable households and schoolchildren during periods of food shortages.
Government will also intensify measures to reduce post-harvest losses, which the Minister said can reach 28 to 30% in some value chains, while promoting improved grain storage and household food reserves.
The new agricultural financing architecture will complement these measures, including climate-risk insurance, drought mitigation programmes and measures to lower production costs. Government is also looking at sovereign drought insurance and household-level insurance.
Dr Masuka said the Government would also focus on livestock drought mitigation, smaller livestock such as goats and poultry, and stronger coordination among Government, farmers and other value-chain actors.
“The low normal rainfall will not only impact agriculture. It will impact nutrition, health, energy, livelihoods, economy, and much more,” he said.
The resolutions collectively seek to reposition agriculture from a largely primary-production activity into a commercially driven sector that generates employment, supports rural development, strengthens food security and contributes to Zimbabwe’s broader industrialisation agenda.
“Zimbabwe does not wish to become a breadbasket anymore,” Dr Masuka said. “What we want to do is to become this agro-industrial hub made up of these micro-production facilities on farms, so that they can begin to feed into the region.”
Tapiwanashe Mangwiro
The Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) is seeking to transform the Agriculture Marketing Fund into a more active financing vehicle for Zimbabwe’s agricultural value chains, with the authority pushing for levies collected from the sector to be channelled back into production, infrastructure and market development.
Speaking at the National Agriculture Conference and Expo (NACE) 2026, AMA chief executive officer Alice Mapfiza said the Agriculture Marketing Fund, established under the AMA Act [Chapter 18:24], provides a framework through which resources generated within the agricultural sector can be mobilised and reinvested into the sector.
“Agriculture is the backbone of national food security and value chain funding is limited, and we all know it because we have been talking about it,” Mapfiza said.
“The AMA Act allows funds, it allows fees, it allows levies to come through that fund so that it is consolidated to finance and support all value chains in agriculture.”
The Agriculture Marketing Fund receives levies collected by AMA from producers, buyers and processors, with the authority already collecting levies from several agricultural value chains.
According to Mapfiza, the objective is to ensure that the resources support production, productivity, market access and linkages, rather than simply being collected without a direct connection to the development of the sectors from which they originate.
The AMA Act provides for the Fund to be financed through levies, appropriations and other approved sources, while its resources can be applied towards the development and marketing of agricultural products.
AMA has developed a fund management and governance framework under which administration costs are capped at 10% of funds collected, according to Mapfiza.
She said allocations would be informed by industry technical committees representing individual value chains before being considered by the Agriculture Marketing Fund management structures.
“This is done through the industry technical committee for each value chain, which then feeds into the agriculture marketing fund management committee,” she said.
The proposed framework places emphasis on transparency, market-driven decision-making, equitable distribution, public reporting and independent monitoring and evaluation.
Mapfiza said the resources could support production, market and trade facilitation, infrastructure development, quality and standards, innovation, climate and risk management, farmer empowerment, value addition and export promotion.
A key part of the proposed model is the revival of agricultural financing instruments backed by predictable receipts flowing into the fund.
AMA is looking at using levies and fees, alongside potential seed capital from Government, development partners and syndicated funding from banks, to create financing structures for individual value chains.
“We need predictable receipts to come through the AMA so that when the monies flow into AMA, people will not question to say, where will the money come from?” Mapfiza said.
She said value-chain participants would need to agree on how the fund should be used, with farmers, processors, traders and other players participating in the process.
“The industry, like I said, needs to, from the farmer to the processor, to say, why do we need this fund? All of us need to be in agreement. And what does it deliver?” she said.
The authority is also seeking to demonstrate the practical application of the fund through projects such as irrigation development.
Mapfiza said resources raised through levies were already being directed towards irrigation development, with up to 35 irrigation schemes either completed or at various stages of implementation.
The broader ambition is for the Agriculture Marketing Fund to become a mechanism through which resources generated by agricultural activity are continuously reinvested into the sector.
“Every dollar collected from the sector should be reinvested into its growth, benefiting farmers, processors, traders, consumers, and the nation at large,” Mapfiza said.
The initiative comes as AMA continues to reposition itself beyond its traditional regulatory role towards market coordination and agricultural value-chain development.
The authority describes its mandate as covering the regulation, development and administration of agricultural production and marketing.
The AMA leadership has also identified the need for a more market-oriented agricultural system, with Mapfiza previously describing the authority’s role as moving towards being a strategic market intelligence hub, value-chain coordinator and catalyst for agricultural transformation.
Tapiwanashe Mangwiro
Zimbabwe needs to integrate agricultural finance, insurance, warehouse receipts and institutional capital to close the sector’s persistent funding gap and unlock the next phase of agricultural growth, CBZ Agro-Yield chief executive officer Collins Mpofu has said.
Speaking at the National Agriculture Conference and Expo (NACE) 2026 in Harare, Mpofu said Zimbabwe’s agricultural financing challenge was not simply a shortage of money, but the need to develop financing models that reduce risk and link funding directly to production and markets.
“The frontier is integration, connecting value-chain finance, receipts, institutional capital and insurance into one stack,” Mpofu said.
His comments come as the agricultural sector faces a substantial funding gap. According to the CBZ Agro-Yield presentation, the 2024/25 agricultural season required about US$1.6 billion, while banks pledged approximately US$500 million.
However, only about US$200 million of the pledged funding had reached farmers by January 2025.
Mpofu said market-linked financing models were proving more effective because repayment was structured around the agricultural value chain rather than relying solely on traditional collateral.
“Key insight: repayment follows structure, not intent — build finance around the value chain and recovery follows,” he said.
The CBZ Agro-Yield presentation identified value-chain finance, contract farming, warehouse receipts, institutional and pension capital, insurance and donor-supported de-risking facilities as important channels for expanding agricultural funding.
Under value-chain financing, banks provide funding across the production chain, including inputs, agronomy and insurance, with repayment linked to crop deliveries.
Contract farming similarly allows contractors to finance inputs against future crop deliveries.
Mpofu said Zimbabwe could also make greater use of agricultural commodities as collateral through warehouse receipt financing.
Under the model, grain stored in certified warehouses generates a negotiable receipt which can be used to access credit or facilitate trading through the Zimbabwe Mercantile Exchange.
The presentation noted that warehouse receipts had accumulated US$171.7 million in value by October 2024, although the volumes remained relatively small compared with national grain intake.
Institutional investors could also play a larger role in agricultural financing. Mpofu said the pension industry had assets of about US$2.63 billion as of June 2025, with a 20% prescribed-asset floor providing potential space for investment in agricultural instruments.
“AFC Agrobills” and other agricultural instruments could help channel longer-term domestic capital into the sector, while insurance and guarantees could absorb some of the risks that have traditionally discouraged lenders.
Mpofu said climate risk remained one of the biggest constraints to agricultural lending, particularly following the 2023/24 El Niño drought, which saw agricultural output contract sharply and increased the food import bill.
The CBZ presentation noted that fewer than 5 percent of smallholder farmers had crop insurance, highlighting the need to mainstream insurance within agricultural financing.
“Insurance in every facility, receipts as collateral, institutions as funders,” the presentation states in outlining the strongest financing structure.
Mpofu also identified land tenure, the cost of credit, currency transition and limited access to formal financial services among the structural constraints that needed to be addressed.
The presentation noted that fewer than 40% of smallholders used formal financial services, while women and young farmers faced some of the widest financing gaps.
To close the gap, Mpofu proposed six practical interventions: completing the rollout of title deeds, mainstreaming agricultural insurance, deepening warehouse receipts and the commodity exchange, attracting institutional capital, localising export value-chain finance and digitising the last mile.
He said Zimbabwe already had many of the components needed to transform agricultural finance and should now focus on integrating them and taking them to scale.
“The opportunity is integration and scale, not experimentation,” the presentation states.
Mpofu said such an approach would enable Zimbabwe to mobilise more domestic capital, improve smallholder inclusion and strengthen the resilience of agricultural production while supporting the sector’s targeted expansion to a US$15.8 billion economy by 2030.
The Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) has assured the country that basic food commodities will remain stable and available despite recurring climate shocks and global supply chain disruptions.
Speaking at the National Agriculture Conference and Expo (NACE) 2026, GMAZ Chairman Dr Tafadzwa Musarara said private millers have established a robust regional pipeline to supply maize, wheat, and rice to meet domestic demand through the ongoing El Niño cycle.
“To the nation, I use this opportunity to say that there will be no shortages in the next few years,” Dr Musarara said.
“The net position of Southern Africa at the moment, the main supply net position is that there is a surplus. There is a surplus in Malawi, surplus in South Africa, surplus in Zambia. Only here were we the epicenter of the drought.”
Under the association’s import strategy, millers plan to procure 1.6 million tonnes of maize between now and August 2027, with procurement projections extending through 2028.
Dr Musarar said monthly import targets include 110,000 metric tonnes of maize, 65,000 metric tonnes of wheat, and 30,000 metric tonnes of rice.
To secure maize stocks, he said millers are prioritising imports from Zambia, where non-GMO maize prices have dropped, supported by the Food Reserve Agency in Lusaka, alongside imports from South Africa to supply the southern region.
Addressing consumer pricing, Dr. Musarara emphasised that the private sector’s primary goal is market stability.
He said GMAZ aims to keep the daily demand of 1.8 million to 2 million loaves supplied at $1 per loaf, while keeping mealie meal prices between $5 and $5.50 per bag.
He highlighted that GMAZ has engaged both the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to streamline logistics and import licensing frameworks.
To overcome shipping delays linked to global geopolitical friction, the association is lobbying authorities to extend import license validity beyond the current three-month limit, particularly for wheat shipments originating from Russia.
Dr Musarara commended the Grain Marketing Board for its strong market performance in pricing and farmer payments, while welcoming the government’s commitment to a private-sector-led agricultural economy.
Since 2020, he said GMAZ members have spent over $1.8 billion importing maize, wheat, and rice to secure the country’s food pipeline.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development has called on the private sector to lead Zimbabwe’s agricultural resilience strategy, warning that reactive crisis management is no longer viable in the face of recurring El Niño climate shocks.
Opening the National Agriculture Conference and Expo (NACE) 2026, the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development Permanent Secretary Professor Obert Jiri said previous dry spells have drained national coffers, citing a historical baseline to demonstrate the financial toll.
“We are meeting at this juncture when it’s all looking gloomy for the agricultural industry because of the El Niño that is coming. We know from 2020 that we have spent more than US$308 million responding to food issues as a result of these drought periods,” Prof Jiri warned.
He pointed out that the impending weather shock coincides with volatile global supply lines and erratic input markets, complicating national food security efforts.
“We have also seen an escalation of constraints owing to disturbances, these geopolitical disturbances, which have led to disruptions in supply lines. We are meeting at a time when we are seeing that fertiliser prices are very unstable and availability of fertiliser is also very questionable,” he said.
To address the drought concerns, he said the government’s response framework centres on six core priorities, namely an enhanced strategic grain reserve strategy, climate-smart production, an enhanced financial architecture, enhanced livestock mitigation strategies, enhanced grain imports, and enhanced coordination alongside early warning systems.
Prof Jiri said that while the state will facilitate policy frameworks, the private sector must drive capital deployment and operational execution across value chains.
“This is where this conference becomes extremely important. Our agriculture must be private sector-led, and the government facilitated,” Prof Jiri told delegates.
“The opportunities across the agricultural value chains from input supply to processing, logistics to finance, are immense. I call upon you to invest, innovate and partner with the government in building a resilient agricultural economy.”
The two-day conference includes the presentation of a State of the Agriculture Sector study conducted by Africa Economic Development Strategies, detailing bankable projects across priority value chains, investment pitches, and policy interventions.
Prof Jiri urged farmers to adopt adaptive techniques to preserve household food security over the next 12 months by embracing climate-smart agriculture, diversifying production, and keeping household grain reserves.
He added that development partners, researchers, and financial institutions must align their interventions with national targets under Vision 2030 to build a food-secure and prosperous economy.
Tapiwanashe Mangwiro
Electricity supply is becoming a central consideration in Zimbabwe’s agricultural development plans, with the power utility working with government to anticipate rising demand from irrigation, processing and other activities across the sector.
The National Agriculture Conference and Expo 2026 heard that the country’s agricultural ambitions could not be achieved without corresponding investment in electricity infrastructure and alternative generation.
Speaking during a panel discussion at the Conference, ZESA’s Engineer John Chikeya said the energy sector’s role was to support the expansion of productive sectors, particularly agriculture.
“As ZETDC, we are a key developer. Our success is not reflected in our success. It’s reflected in the success of those that we support,” he said.
He said the government had brought the agriculture and energy ministries together through an inter-ministerial committee to align power supply with agricultural development.
“We then established an inter-ministerial committee in the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Energy to say, this is what you want. This is what we have. How can we get there?” he said.
One of the outcomes has been the recognition of electricity as a key agricultural input.
“Through the inter-ministerial committee, it was agreed that electricity was going to be treated as a key input,” Engineer Chikeya said.
This is significant as Zimbabwe expands irrigation and seeks to increase agricultural output. Irrigation systems require dependable electricity for pumping, while processing, refrigeration and other agricultural value-chain activities also depend on consistent power.
The utility said the reduction in disruptions experienced by the agricultural sector was the result of greater coordination and technical consistency.
“It’s just the technical consistency that comes with the availability of electricity,” Engineer Chikeya said.
But maintaining that progress remains a challenge.
Zimbabwe’s power system remains exposed to fluctuations in hydroelectric generation, particularly at Kariba, while ageing infrastructure requires continued rehabilitation and reinforcement.
“In terms of the security of supply, we are failing. But we are not yet out of that,” he said.
The challenge has increased the urgency of diversifying the country’s electricity mix.
Distributed solar generation is already making a growing contribution, with the panel reporting that installed distributed generation had reached 147MW.
“And that means that Zimbabwe are now contributing to the energy security,” Engineer Chikeya said.
The utility is also looking at mechanisms that would allow more households and businesses to generate electricity and feed it into the grid.
The development of advanced net metering could create opportunities for private investment in small-scale electricity generation while increasing the amount of power available to the national system.
However, farmers at the conference highlighted another major issue — the cost of electricity.
Delegates argued that high electricity tariffs increase production costs and ultimately affect the competitiveness of agricultural products.
Engineer Chikeya acknowledged the concern but said tariff reductions had to be implemented alongside improvements in the reliability of supply.
“We are very conscious of the pain that comes from a high tariff, and we have a trajectory to then reduce it,” he said.
He cautioned that lowering tariffs without resolving the underlying infrastructure challenges could undermine the reliability of supply.
“We don’t want to reduce the tariff today and then bring back load shedding,” he said.
The utility is therefore pursuing a longer-term approach centred on network rehabilitation, additional generation and greater use of alternative energy.
For agriculture, the issue extends beyond simply keeping the lights on. Reliable electricity is increasingly necessary for irrigation, processing and value addition as Zimbabwe seeks to move towards a more productive and commercially oriented agricultural sector.
Engineer Chikeya said the energy sector would need to continue working with agriculture to anticipate future demand.
“We need to continue with the relationship where we plan together and anticipate the growth in demand in the agricultural sector so that we prepare adequately to continue supporting that,” he said.
The message from the conference was that agricultural expansion and energy planning will increasingly need to move together, with investment in generation and distribution becoming an important part of the country’s broader agricultural transformation agenda.
