Percy Chipunza

Contributed to the World Bank technical assistance program to the Government of Zimbabwe. Worked on exploring sustainable public support options to the agriculture sector to catalyze private sector participation in food security value chains. Defined a set of short, medium and long-term goals. Formulated a set of policy for regulatory reform process including analysis of financial statements and financial projections. Analyzed the valuations to identify the likely negative aspects and risks for each option

Developed and conducted a survey and analysis on investment trends in agricultural research in Zimbabwe in public and private sector for the periods: 1 March 2010- 30 June 2011; 1 March 2013 - 30 June 2013, and 15 January 2015 – 31 December 2018

• Coordinated and led the preparation of the Zimbabwe Agricultural Investment Plan under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) process
• Facilitated and coordinated the development of background policy notes on impact of climate change on smallholder agriculture value chains and livelihoods that led to the launch of the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF)
• Led the preparation of the Smallholder Irrigation Revitalization Programme proposal for consideration for investment by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The proposal was successful and was awarded a $25 million grant by IFAD to be rolled over 7 years from 2017 with the Agri Marketing and Value Chain Development being awarded $10 million under the project
• Facilitated and coordinated the inclusion of an Agricultural Productivity Module onto the Poverty Income Consumption and Expenditure Survey (PICES) by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency with support from the World Bank and was appointed key expert for developing the Agriculture Markets and Value Addition section of the PICES questionnaire including field testing, cleaning and training of enumerators
• Assisted in the preparation and facilitation of the SADC Regional Workshop on Investment and Risks in Conservation Agriculture focusing on sustainable agriculture, conservation tillage and sustainable water management held in Harare, Zimbabwe. The workshop came up with key indicators to monitor progress in implementation of sustainable agriculture practices in smallholder farming sector
• Coordinated the engagement of farmers, private sector and development partners to identify agricultural policies and regulations that restricted the conduct and performance of business in the agriculture sector under the Enabling the Business of Agriculture Program
• Created an inventory of priority investment climate smart agricultural projects in disadvantaged communities for consideration for support by development partners. The investment projects included financial evaluations and valuation analysis for all expected benefits and risks developed through research and market assessments
• Contributed to the regulatory impact assessment of the regulations in the livestock sector by conducting the economic assessment of the current regulations and the proposed changes in the livestock value chains

• Produced the government maize and wheat producer prices using the gross margin budget guaranteeing farmers a return of 15 and 25% respectively on their investment for the 4 year period
• Conducted sensitivity analyses on maize, wheat, cotton, soyabeans, beef and chicken value chains to test impact of policy options on stakeholders returns
• Contributed to the development of the national quarterly Food Balance Sheet and analysis of trends in imports and exports of food commodities
• Resuscitated the multi-disciplinary National Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Coordination Committee composed of farmers, private sector, academia and government institutions and ensured compliance of the national SPS system with the World Trade. Organization Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
• Represented the Ministry in the National Committee on Trade ensuring that grain commodity value chain stakeholders players produce and trade key commodities in compliance with national legislation and associated regulations

• Developed initial drafts for various field survey tools and tested them
• Took minutes and developed action matrices from the meeting
• Assisted the National Sanitary and Phytosanitary Coordinating Committee secretary by keeping a record of meeting resolutions
• Collected agricultural commodity pricing data and production statistics for the annual Agricultural Statistical Bulletin
• Constructed the maize and wheat gross margin budgets in consultations with farmers, agro-input suppliers, grain processors and traders for use in recommending the producers prices

• Trained 800 rural households on team building and selection criteria for vulnerable households
• Coordinated the selection and establishment of Food Distribution Committee teams in 106 villages in the 2 provinces
• Monitored the delivery and distribution of food and agricultural inputs to vulnerable rural households. No leakages were recorded
• Evaluated the programme and 95% success was achieved