[{"bbox": [81, 152, 1120, 312], "category": "Text", "text": "agriculture. This investment-driven approach targets smallholder farmers, particularly rural women and youth, aiming to close yield gaps, and promote agro-processing and marketing. Achieving these goals can bolster the agricultural sector's contribution to national economic development and align with Zimbabwe's vision to attain middle-income status by 2030. While the policy emphasizes agricultural hubs, clusters, and corridors but faces challenges due to limited electricity availability in rural areas, necessitating expensive diesel generators and contributing to deforestation."}, {"bbox": [81, 323, 1120, 484], "category": "Text", "text": "The proposed action addresses these challenges within the context of the MIP - Green Economic Growth. By supporting value-chain development, climate-smart agriculture, investment in renewable energy, EPA implementation. The action aligns with several EU global strategies, including the Global Gateway, the Green Deal, and Climate Action. As Zimbabwe positions itself with recent governmental initiatives signalling openness for business, the action seeks to leverage opportunities and overcome existing obstacles for sustainable agricultural development in the country."}, {"bbox": [100, 523, 353, 555], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2 Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [81, 584, 432, 610], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### Horticulture value chain development"}, {"bbox": [81, 622, 1120, 915], "category": "Text", "text": "The horticulture sector in Zimbabwe has significant potential for generating income and boosting economic growth. Investments in the sector can create jobs, increase exports and contribute to improved livelihoods for young people and women. With the EU European Union being a key export destination, facilitated by duty-free access under the EU-Zimbabwe Economic Partnership Agreement, opportunities for expanding international market share are considerable. Alongside the focus on exports, there's a growing recognition of the importance of tapping into domestic market channels, in order to diversify revenue streams, promote food security, and foster economic opportunities for smallholder farmers and local businesses. However, the realisation of the sector's potential is hampered by a number of factors among them, the absence of laboratory testing facilities to ensure compliance with EU export requirements and voluntary standards certifications such as Global Gap. The establishment of a laboratory equipped to test for quality, safety and compliance (including SPS measures) with international standards is needed to address this challenge."}, {"bbox": [81, 926, 1120, 1034], "category": "Text", "text": "There is also limited security scanning capacity at the airport of exit which causes logistical delays when loading horticulture cargo onto the plane. These delays may result in the breaking of the cold chain which compromises the quality of the exported products. Investing in technology and processes to streamline the loading process can help minimise delays and ensure speedy and efficient transportation of the products destined for the export market."}, {"bbox": [81, 1045, 1120, 1206], "category": "Text", "text": "Small holder farmers in the sector lack the skills and knowledge to sustainably improve productivity, meet quality standards and access the market. They struggle to catch up with changing rules and new export compliance directives such as the ones arising from the implementation of the European Green Deal. This applies to EPA implementation conditions. The provision of training to small holder farmers on quality standards, best environmentally-sound and climate-smart practices in sustainable horticulture farming as well as meeting export requirements is required."}, {"bbox": [81, 1217, 1120, 1378], "category": "Text", "text": "Small holder farmers lack access to market information. They also have to obtain permits and licences from many different regulatory bodies and the processes are cumbersome and costly to those who are venturing into the lucrative export market for the first time. To increase the chances of success, substantial technical assistance is required, as well as digitalisation to streamline processes and documentation. Policy advocacy which entails the engagement with stakeholders including government agencies, industry associations and international organisations can help address regulatory challenges and create an enabling environment for the industry."}, {"bbox": [81, 1388, 1120, 1575], "category": "Text", "text": "The sustainability of laboratory facilities and the security scanners will be ensured through the establishment of a Trust that will own and manage the assets on behalf of the industry. Business model for both the lab and the scanning equipment will be developed based on the principle that the costs of managing and maintaining the assets will be borne by the users through a negotiated tariff structure and yet ensuring that no profit accrues to individual private entities. Trustee members will be drawn from the horticulture apex body, in this case the Horticulture Development Council, the farmers and from the national competent authority for the exportation of agricultural products."}, {"bbox": [600, 1638, 615, 1661], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "6"}]