Lands Ministry Hosts Two-Day End Of Project On Alien Invasive Fruit Files

By Desire Tshuma

The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development is holding a two-day workshop to deliberate on the end of the project on Allien Invasive Fruit Flies research in the su-sahara .
The project, which began in 2019 where four countries are participating, is jointly funded by the International Development Research Center (IDRC) and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

Participants to the workshop comprise horticulture farmers organizations, the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe mango famers and the academia.

The workshop was officially opened Tuesday by the Deputy minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Vangelis Peter Haritatos.

“As the country shifts gears up speeding towards attaining its ‘Vision 2030’ in which President Dr ED Mnangagwa is leading us to, we forsee this project filling the gaps and constraints faced by mango famers through adoption of proven fruit fly IPM technologies,” Deputy Minister Haritatos said.

“This project utilized gender mainstreaming to ensure that the alien invasive fruit flies project reaches, benefits and empowers women and youth farmers in the target areas. The linking of gender mainstreaming in this project edifies the ministry’s endeavor and commitment to research and development activities that contribute to the SDG goal number five that mention gender equality.”

The Ambassador of Canada in Zimbabwe, Mrs Christina Buchan, who was also in attendance, comented about the impact of the research.

“Canada firmly believes that promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls is the most effective approach to achieve this goal. The effects of the invasive fruit flies on mango crops here has been devastating, causing many farmers to contemplate moving away from mangoes entirely,” she said.

Mrs Buchan said the project has been able to demonstrate that there exist sustainable pest management solutions that are effective, ecologically friendly and scalable.

More than 1200 farmers in Zimbabwe are now implementing these pest management solutions which, according to the Canadian Ambassador, have concrete and measurable impacts on their livelihoods.

He warned new players in the