Zimbabwe Agricultural Society (ZAS) is working to resolve and manage the dispute between farmers and miners in the country with the issue pencilled for discussion at the third Mining and Agriculture Interface slated for the 29th of August.
Addressing journalists in the capital today, ZAS Chief Executive Officer Dr. Anxious Masuka said they have created a specific discussion for farmers and miners to coexist.
“As you know the Mines and Minerals Act ordinarily supersedes any other Act including the Agricultural Act.
“There is an increasing conflict between farmers and miners and to be able to manage that we have created a specific discussion between farmers and miners so that they can coexist.
“Their objectives are similar they are only extracting Zimbabwean minerals from a different depth.
“Miners concentrate on depths underground while agriculturalists concentrate on the first 45 centimeters of the land but their objective is the same largely the improvement of livelihoods,” he said.
He added that they are set to double their gates’ capacity to reduces large queues during the show.
“We are hoping that we will be able to double our gates’ capacity from about 94 ticketing points to over 150 and our aim is not to have anyone spend more than 30 minutes in a queue.
“So that’s something that we are working on and we have made major progress.
“We are also transiting to a new ticketing system which we think will be more robust and more efficient and it should ensure that people spend less time in the queues,” he added.
Meanwhile the Zimbabwe Agricultural Society (ZAS) has rebranded its annual agricultural exhibition, the Harare Agricultural Show to the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show as part of its efforts to reinvigorate the event’s national outlook.
