ZIMBABWE – The Government of Zimbabwe, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has commissioned the largest livestock semen processing and cryopreservation centre in Zimbabwe at Matopos Research Institute.

The over $400,000 state-of-the-art gene bank equipment centre, the second largest in Southern Africa, has a capacity to process three million livestock semen straws per year.

The cattle semen processing and preservation centre will play a crucial role in preserving genetic diversity through cryopreservation of semen from valuable livestock breeds, including indigenous and locally adapted breeds.

The innovation platform also focuses on improving access to livestock nutrition through fodder production, feed formulation and agroforestry and on production and multiplication of traditional seed.

An additional $40,000 was invested for capacity building of Innovation Platform staff on artificial insemination learning from experiences in Kenya and towards procurement of other key machinery for the supplementary strategies that the Innovation Centre is implementing.

The Climate Resilient Livelihoods projects is a seven-year initiative, from 2020-2027, that seeks to help vulnerable communities, especially women, in southern Zimbabwe to cope with the effects of climate change on their agricultural livelihoods by overcoming technical, financial and capacity barriers they face.

Matopos Research Institute is one of the five innovation centers established by the Climate Resilient Livelihoods project to promote adoption of climate-smart agriculture technologies in the country.

Matopos Research Institute is a custodian of Zimbabwe’s indigenous breeds (Tuli, Mashona, Afrikander and Nkone) and is availing these elite indigenous animal genetic resources to farmers at an affordable, cost recovery basis.

Anxious Masuka, Minister of Land, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development noted this milestone as a giant step towards attaining food security in Zimbabwe.

“This centre is among the ministry’s efforts towards attainment of the Agriculture Food Systems and Rural Transformation Strategy, which seeks to increase agricultural productivity for national food security and food sovereignty, regardless of the weather,” he added.

Ayodele Odusola, the UNDP Representative in Zimbabwe, stated that the partnership bolsters Zimbabwe’s efforts to enhance climate resilience.

Just like other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, Odusola noted that Zimbabwe experiences frequent climate-related shocks that heavily affect smallholder farmers who rely on rain-fed agriculture, significantly influencing the country’s socio-economic progress.

He believes the support will complement the government of Zimbabwe’s thrust to achieve the climate adaptation milestones as outlined in the country’s revised Nationally Determined Contributions.

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