Hon. Minister Dr. Anxious Jongwe Masuka holds a BSc Agric (Hons) and a DPhil from the University of Zimbabwe/Oslo. He was appointed Minister of Agriculture, Lands and Rural Resettlement in August 2020. A technocrat with a very strong industrial and agricultural background, having been a forestry and agricultural researcher for 13 years with over 100 science publications and more than 15 books and handbooks on forestry, agriculture, and policy and strategy. Prior to his appointment he served as the Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Agriculture Society where he championed the transformation of the Agricultural Society to make it more relevant to the current agricultural development imperative while creating an organization fit for the future. He is renowned for transforming the Harare Agricultural Show from a display platform to an opportunities ecosystem for individuals, informal MSMEs and formal businesses. In addition to spearheading a project focusing on improving and sustaining rural livelihoods through nationwide artificial insemination of beef cattle, launched in 2017, and which complemented government’s Command Livestock. This project was largely funded by mining companies through their CSR activities. Some 10 800 improved bulls and heifers will be produced annually, in all provinces, over a three-year period from this project.
Dr. Masuka is a Founding Fellow of the Zimbabwe Academy of Sciences and has been Chairman of the Africa Mycological Association and Vice President World Mycological Association. He has won several management awards and in 2015 was selected by the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe as one of the 50 most influential Zimbabweans.
