By Agencies
Mango and fruit value chain producer’s are set to benefit from a value and beneficiation program.
The project whose focus is primarily on empowering women and youths, will also empower other players along the mango value chain in line with the country’s push to achieve an upper middle income economy by the year 2030.
“More than 1 500 mango farmers from Mutoko, Murehwa (Mashonaland East) and Zvimba (Mashonaland West) districts have been trained in use of new technologies as well as new innovations to manage fruit flies and mango driers to preserve excess fruit and improve their food security respectively,” DRSS chief director Dr Dumisani Kutywayo said on Monday.
The project whose focus is primarily on empowering women and youths, will also empower other players along the mango value chain in line with the country’s push to achieve an upper middle income economy by the year 2030.
The Department of Research and Specialist Services (DRSS) has since selected 1 500 mango farmers in Mashonaland East to train them on fruit tree management and value addition to ensure they are equipped to extract the full value of their orchards.
“More than 1 500 mango farmers from Mutoko, Murehwa (Mashonaland East) and Zvimba (Mashonaland West) districts have been trained in use of new technologies as well as new innovations to manage fruit flies and mango driers to preserve excess fruit and improve their food security respectively,” DRSS chief director Dr Dumisani Kutywayo said on Monday.
The initiative comes at a time the Government is stressing on value addition to enable producers to derive maximum value from their produce instead of selling it raw.
“The project aims to improve food security and nutrition, provide income generation opportunities, and reduce poverty to small and medium-scale mango growers, as well as other actors along the mango value chain, with a specific focus on women and youths through the implementation of sustainable management of fruit flies and capacity building initiatives,” said Dr Kutywayo.
Dr Kutywayo highlighted that linkages had been established with existing small-scale cooperatives, processors of mangoes with drying facilities having been identified on project sites in Mutoko and Zvimba respectively, raising prospects of value-addition and job-creation opportunities in production.
“Linkages with agro-processors have been made for cooperative fruit drying to target larger local and foreign markets,” he said.
The department is conducting research on crop regulations and making use of biological control systems for area wide management of pests such as fruit flies to enhance pests’ management and control.
“The principal mandate on surveillance of pests in plant quarantine and phytosanitary services is to determine the pest status or pest freedom of production sites of pest such as those of fruit flies and categorising them,” said Dr Kutywayo.
As part of the project, the institute released 4 500 endoparasitoids for biological control of the Oriental fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis in Mashonaland East complemented by the training of 1 968 farmers, 70 percent being females on Mango Fruit Fly Integrated Pest Management Strategies.
Dr Kutywayo added: “Following the implementation of these measures, the fruit flies’ population has significantly dropped from over 30 fruit flies per trap per day in 2019 to less than 3 fruit flies per trap per day since the project inception in 2022.”
Over 1 800 households have been earmarked to have mango fruit trees in the project sites.
“Sustainability of the surveillance network is key to the success of this early detection strategy and the broad footprint that the department has in Zimbabwe will make it possible to monitor for early detection of the pest,” said Dr Kutywayo.
Herald Zimbabwe
