John Cassim
HARARE, ZIMBABWE – The Zimbabwean government through its Agricultural Ministry will soon be embarking on the electronic Farmer-Investor Match Making Platform (e-FIMM) to link farmers with potential investors.
The e-FIMM, is a Joint Venture (JV) Framework, an innovative platform that will assist with access to land for investors, access to capital and other services by land holders who may be facing resource challenges.
This is being done to capacitate all farmers that have constraints in a bid to achieve the maximum land utilisation.
“Maximum land utilization dovetails with the quest for agricultural transformation, industrialization and development.
Embracing JVs on mutually beneficial binding terms enables skills transfer & culminates in “smart and sustainable” partnerships for agricultural growth,” said Dr John Bhasera, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development.
Dr Bhasera encouraged all farmers with capacity constraints to partner with strategic JV investors and that this would be done with help from Agritex officials and Ministry’s Legal departments
A Joint Venture is where farmers share resources with other farming businesses, whether this is land, machinery or machinery expertise.
Getting involved with a JV means you can reduce the level of capital investment and benefit in a host of ways, including economies of scale.
Some of the advantages of Joint Ventures include access to new markets and distribution networks, increased capacity, sharing of risks and costs (liability) with a partner, access to new knowledge and expertise, including specialised staff and access to greater resources.
In 2022, Dr Anxious Masuka, Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development announced that the government had approved a JV Agreement Framework which allows investors to undertake farming operations with the consent of the government.
“It must be emphasised that all Joint Ventures must be approved by the Ministry for them to be binding documents.
Section 18 of the Land Commission Act Chapter 20:29 buttresses this position by asserting that no occupier of state land shall permit occupation on a share cropping basis, by another person unless a formal agreement has been entered into between the owner and the occupier with the agreement having been approved by the Minister,” Dr Masuka, hinted