Zimbabwe, February 2025

Working Week for Elaboration of National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS)

Background

On 16 May 2024, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of Zimbabwe, submitted to the President of AGRA & Director General of the Coalition for African Rice Development, CARD Secretariat an Expression of Interest by the Government of Zimbabwe to join the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD) as a member country to increase rice production and enhance food and nutritional security and rural development.

According to the letter of expression of interest, Zimbabwe has witnessed an increase in domestic rice demand due to drastic preference shifts and population demographic changes, prompting the country to adopt rice as a strategic food security commodity.

In response to the expression of interest, a mission of the CARD Secretariat composed of the General Coordinator and the Senior Advisor for Southern Africa, visited Zimbabwe from 20 to 22 June 2024 to better understand the place of rice in the overall Agricultural Policy Framework of the Government of Zimbabwe and to explain the nature and modus operandi of CARD including the requisites needed for a country to become a member of the CARD Initiative.

Visit of the General Coordinator and the Senior Advisor to the Zimbabwe Ministry of Agriculture

At its 20^th Steering Committee in July 2024, the CARD Secretariat requested the endorsement of the Expression of Interest by the Government of Zimbabwe to join the CARD as a member country”. The Steering Committee was positive and recommended its consideration by the 10^th General Meeting in October 2025.

Upon the endorsement, of the inclusion of Zimbabwe as a member of the CARD Initiative the CARD Secretariat worked with the Zimbabwe Task Force to organize the WW1 to develop the NRDS as a means of materializing the spirit of adhesion of Zimbabwe to the CARD Initiative. As a consequence, a Working Week was organized from the 17^th to the 21^st of February 2025 in Chinhoyi to formulate Zimbabwe’s first National Rice Development Strategy.

Methodology

The mission started with a courtesy meeting at the JICA Office with the Deputy Resident Representative of JICA Zimbabwe for a briefing and insights about the development of the NRDS of Zimbabwe. This was followed by a trip to the CUT Hotel in Chinhoyi, where the workshop took place.

The workshop started with the official opening by the Director of Business Development and NRDS Focal Point, who welcomed the participants, outlined the objectives and expectations, and declared the workshop open. After the opening remarks, a Task Force member presented the draft ʺRice Policy Position Paperʺ and the “Value Chain Study” as support documents for NRDS elaboration. As a follow-up, the reporter presented: a) an overview of the CARD Initiative b) the methodology for the elaboration of NRDS, and c) the draft SADC Regional Rice Development Strategy (SRRDS).

Three breakout sessions were organized to address the issues related to a) a Review of the national rice sector, b) Challenges & opportunities facing national rice sector development, and c) Priority areas and approaches, d) Vision and scope of NRDS, e) Implementation structure, and f) Financing strategy.

(Please see photos taken during Group work)

At the end of each working day, the three groups assembled to assess the progress achieved in different thematic areas.

(Please see photos taken during Group work – Reporting)

At the end of the workshop on day 5 (February 21, 2025), the participants created a zero NRDS draft that was nominated “Zimbabwe National Rice Value Chain Development Plan 2026-2030”.

Presentation of NRDS Zero Draft

 Strategic Interventions

1. Creating awareness;
2. Capacity development for extension staff and farmers;
3. Improve rice seed availability on the market;
4. Promote private sector participation: and
5. Input support program.

Goals

1. To increase rice production to 270,000 Mt by 2030.
2. To build a Rice Strategic Grain Reserve for the country and to diversify the Strategic Grain Reserve from Maize.
3. To achieve rice self-sufficiency and reduce the Rice Import bill by 80% from USD 172.9 million by 2030.
4. To drive the rice sub-sector towards achieving self-sufficiency by increasing productivity and market competitiveness of locally produced rice.

Closing Remarks and Way Forward

In the closing remarks, it was agreed that the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development should undertake consultation of relevant stakeholders to reach a consensus for final validation by May 2025. The proposed schedule for the next steps is as follows:

No	Actions	Timeline	Responsibility
1	Submission to Line Ministries for Comments	27-Feb-25	Permanent Secretary
2	Submission to Development Partners for Comments	28-Feb-25	Permanent Secretary
3	National and Sub-National Consultations	4-Apr-25	Ministry of Agriculture
4	Consolidation of all Comments	14 to 17 Apr-25	Task Force, CARD Secretariat
5	Finalization of NRDS and Elaboration of Concept Notes	5 to 9 May-25	Task Force, RA