Green Fingers

MEC Vusi Shongwe for the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs, appealed to communities to use any available piece of land for crop-production purposes.

“Let us continue to plough the land to fight against hunger and poverty,” said Shongwe while speaking during the provincial planting season yesterday in eManzana, formerly Badplaas.

“The chieftaincy had donated about 1 200 hectares for us to plough the land so that we can deal with the issue of unemployment, especially among women. We are trying by all means as a department to come up with a support in form of mechanisations, seeds and the likes to make sure we help them.

Fortunately we have other stakeholders like Sasol and others who are coming to be part to make sure that we feed the nation,” Shongwe said.

Chief Makhosonke says he hoped his chiefdom will be role players in ploughing nutritious food to fight hunger. He invites the youth of the area to take advantage of the agricultural opportunities by cultivating crops and fighting unemployment among the youth.

He added that the rain will fall in due course once traditional leaders had performed certain rituals to ask for rain.

Talking about climate change Shongwe said he is positive that it is still going to rain in a few weeks’ time so that farmers may yield positive results.

“Climate change is here and we cannot change it, but we believe we will receive some rain soon,” added Shongwe.

He urged farmers to consider planting drought-resistant crops and making use of the latest farming methods to continue producing food. He said there are new methods to be applied and technology used to sustain and ensure food security, regardless of the persisting drought.

MEC for the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs (DARDLEA), Vusi Shongwe called on adults to share their indigenous knowledge in tree planting with the younger generation. The Provincial Arbor Week event was celebrated under the theme: “Arbor for mitigating Climate Change and Air Pollution”.

Activities on the day included the distribution of trees and planting of fruit and indigenous trees for local households, not only to address food security, but to be used for greening initiatives, as windbreaks and for climate change mitigation.

Arbor Week is celebrated annually on the first week of September, in a bid to call on all South Africans to plant and maintain both indigenous and fruit trees as a practical and symbolic gesture of sustainable environmental management.
Speaking on the importance of the day, the head of the department, Lucky Monareng, said the day aims to create awareness about the 2 000 indigenous tree species in the country, and the role that they play in our environment.

“We wish that each homestead has a fruit tree to be either consumed by the family or sold to neighbours to generate income,” he said.

He added that fruit trees can survive for up for 25 years, which means that they can produce fruits for many years. He also explained that some trees are used for medicinal purposes and as windbreaks. He added that the trees also contribute to creating job opportunities, thus boosting the economy.

In order to accelerate access to markets by farmers, the department, through the GNP will be supplying produce to the following departments: education (schools), health (hospitals), safety, security and liaison (Training College) and correctional services (prisons).

The CRDP has been allocated back to the department for coordination. This programme will bring back the much anticipated integrated planning that is important to develop our rural communities. The department, together with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform will urgently start with planning to bring back the CRDP to its full implementation mode again.

The staff from Gert Sibande District office spent July 16, at the Nokuthula Primary School in Mkhondo Local Municipality as part of Mandela Month commemorations. Activities at the school involved starting a vegetable garden in the school yard, a donation of garden tools and trees and the painting of classrooms. Learners also shared poems about the late great Statesman, Dr Nelson Mandela, while guest speaker, Mr MJ Msimang delivered a Memorial Lecture on Madiba.

The aim was to commemorate Mandela’s legacy in a sustainable way that brings about enduring change. Mandela Month is celebrated through every individual’s contribution towards making the world a better place. Mandela Day is celebrated across the world annually on his birthday on July 18.

I am proud to announce that the department innovatively introduced and piloted a new sub-programme of planting fruit and nuts trees in each household, called Zonda Indlala Programme (ZIP). The programme is aimed to reach all levels of production that includes the backyard household level, and both emerging and commercial farmers. This will see our farmers participating in agro-processing opportunities such as fruit-drying, achar, juice and jam processing.
Further to that, this programme will address the multifaceted challenges of land unavailability, food insecurity, carbon emission, high levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

This financial year the department will take advantage of introducing our farmers into the highly contested sector of dairy production. The department has thus increased its focus area on assisting dairy farmers to increase their production level over the MTSF period.

These farmers will supply their milk to the much anticipated dairy production plant to be constructed in the City of Mbombela.

The dairy plant will benefit the local traders and surrounding households, who will no longer travel long distances to acquire fresh dairy products. This will also trigger unlimited spin-offs such as logistics and indirect jobs.

The next five years will see a continued provision of comprehensive support to the three established agri-hubs that are the Mkhuhlu, Mkhondo and the Dr JS Moroka Agri-Hubs. These hubs will open up the much needed export market to the farmers’ produce. To date, I am proud to announce that the Mkhuhlu Agri-Hub is already operational. This financial year the department will see Mkhondo and Dr JS Moroka Agri-Hubs coming into operation.

These agri-hubs will bring much-needed agro-processing facilities to the doorsteps of our farmers, who will supply their produce directly to the agri-hubs, thereby eliminating potential middlemen and unnecessary high transport costs. This will open opportunities of value adding and storage to reduce the wastage from which they have always suffered, and create economic spin-offs for economic development. Already the Province has entered into mutual agreements with countries such as Mozambique, Angola, Oman, and Russia.

Vegetables produced in the Justicia area are not only providing vital nutrition to preschoolers, but are also enriching the diets of nearby community members.

Henna Preschool supports 150 children and is the biggest of a cluster of three rural early development centres owned by the More Community Trust.  Read the full story here