First Lady, Amai Auxillia Mnangagwa is participating at the Zanu PF Mashonaland East Youth League Walkathon event at Danhiko in Harare where she also took part in a tree planting exercise
organised by the Forestry Commission. Her target is to plant over a thousand trees in the province. The Forestry Commission has also set out a target to plant twenty-five thousand trees in the Danhiko area.
Amai Mnangagwa made a passionate plea for Zimbabweans to plant more fruit trees countrywide to ensure food security and environmental conservation.
A precept from a famous quote by one English philosopher reads: “Trees have long been a subject of interest and a topic of discussion – and it’s no wonder, they represent life, growth, peace, and nature.”
This was the guiding principle for the First Lady, as she joined Zanu PF youths in a campaign to revamp fruit tree plantations to ensure enhanced nutrition, food security and environmental conservation.
Amai Mnangagwa called on Zimbabweans to intensify programmes around agro-forestry and minimise the effects of climate change.
“Ticharamba tichidyara miti yakawanda nekuti nyika yedu yanyanya kushama,”(We will continue to plant trees because there is deforestation in the country), she said.
The efforts by the First Lady and the ruling party youths to establish orchards in schools countrywide feed into the national vision being spearheaded by the Forestry Commission, to grow 10 million trees annually.
In order to raise awareness on the national tree planting programme, the youths embarked on a 44 kilometre march from Harare to Goromonzi, which is hosting the Zanu PF annual national people’s conference.
As the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now.
