R1.9m boost for food initiative
Agricultural benefit for Alice youth
EASTERN Cape department of rural development and agrarian reform MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane launched a food security programme aimed at the youth in Alice this week.
The launch took place in Dyamela village outside Alice where more than 1 000 youths and elderly people attended despite the cold, piercing wind which swept through the town on Thursday.
The programme aims to equip unemployed youths from povertystricken areas across the province with practical skills to produce their own food.
The DRDAR has partnered with the University of Fort Hare and the University of South Africa for the oneyear crop production course and has spent R1.9-million for the registration, tuition fees and payment of stipends to all participating youths for the duration of the programme.
At least one student will be linked to five households, a school, clinic or community garden and it is estimated that about 300 local households will benefit.
Speaking at the launch, Qoboshiyane said this was a response to the scourge of poverty in the Eastern Cape.
“We have decided to target young people this Youth Month and make them active in eradicating poverty in their own spaces.
“The programme is aimed at re-engineering the conscience of young people, and make them realise agriculture and food security is a primary activity they are supposed to do,” he said.
Siphenathi Feni, 20, said she was learning a lot from the programme even though she had experienced challenges at first.
“Because we are females, we were initially picked on and seen as incapable of doing some things.”
Lusapho Machaula, 22, said growing up, he was never attracted to agriculture, but when the programme was introduced to him, he knew it was something he was destined to do.
“The skills and knowledge I am gaining now will assist me in the future, as I am looking to further my studies and get a degree in forestry,” he said.
Qoboshiyane also handed over two tractors, a potato picker and an irrigation system to Fort Cox Agricultural College for the Rural Wealth Creations programme that benefits more than 150 unemployed youths which include unemployed graduates.
Qoboshiyane said the R5.8-million programme looks at nurturing, training and resourcing youths so they are selfreliant and selfsustaining, taking their skills back to the villages they come from. — sisiphoz@dispatch.co.za