Marvelous Tapera 
THE agriculture sector largely influences the economic, social and political lives of the majority of people in Zimbabwe. It is also the source of sustenance for most rural Zimbabweans.
At commercial level, the sector produces export crops such as tobacco, cotton and horticulture products which bring in foreign currency and improves the balance of payment. It is one of the biggest employer in Zimbabwe and also the key to the success of downstream industries, among them the manufacturing industry.
To resonate with this thinking, there are a number of fiscal incentives afforded to farmers by the tax statutes as more fully explained below.
Farmers just like any other businesses are entitled to write off their capital expenditure against their income over a period of 4 years. In addition, they also enjoy 100 percent deduction in the year in which they incur expenditure on soil erosion prevention (e.g growing of trees, contour rigs etc.), water conservation works (e.g dams, weirs embankments), clearing of land, sinking of boreholes and wells (other than borehole equipment), aerial and geophysical surveys and fencing. Such expenditure would ordinarily be treated as capital expenditure deductible against the income of the farmer over a number of years.
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