Agricultural Activities and Linked Services That Will Continue During Zimbabwe’s Lockdown

Agriculture is one of the businesses that have been listed as an essential industry an service. This qualifies agricultural activities to continue even during the current lockdown which is meant to stop the spread of COVID-19.

The lockdown appears during the harvesting season in Zimbabwe and other African countries.

The Ministry listed the following activities to continue during the lockdown to guarantee household and national food security; clean water and sanitation services; animal and public health advises:

1. Crop and Livestock Production on Individual and Institutional Farms as
these are self-contained establishments;

2. Crop and Livestock Assessment for the 2019/20 agriculture production
season necessary national food security programming;

3. Manufacture and supply of agriculture inputs (seed, fertilizers, agrochemicals, fuel, day old chicks, stockfeeds, tillage services, spares of
agriculture machinery, equipment, etc.), and support services;

4. Manufacture of water treatment chemicals

5. Tillage Services such as Land Clearing, Land Preparation, Spraying,
Harvesting to enable smooth transition into the next season;

6. Contract Farming for Crop and Livestock Production under government
and private programmes;

7. Trials and experiments at public and private research stations, colleges, and diagnostics laboratories;

8. Provision of Clean Water and Sanitation to the households by ZINWA, Local Authorities, DDF and approved private sector players;

9. Provision of WASH services by UN Agencies and Cooperating Partners;

10. Public and Private Grain Importation, Storage and Distribution;

11. Grain milling, supply of requisite raw material to millers, and related logistical services;

12. Processing and distribution of stock feeds;

13. Manufacture, Supply, Importation and Installation of Mechanization and Irrigation Equipment Services;

14. Issuance of Import and Export Permits as well as inspection of grain before shipment;

15. Livestock movement permits and meat inspection at slaughter houses;

16. Harvesting, Domestic Marketing, Processing and Export of Perishable Horticulture Produce;

17. Animal diseases preventive and control vaccinations against infectious diseases and treatment of sick animals;

18. Broader crop and animal health control services and national dipping programme;

19. Tsetse fly traffic control gates to stop spread to cleared areas;

20. Milk testing and transportation to collection centres and factories