Hunger hits Mat-South province

ABOUT 43 000 more households in Matabeleland South Province are food insecure and need to be added to a list of about 67 000 under the drought relief programme, an official has said.

Speaking on behalf of Matabeleland South provincial social welfare officer, Mr Criswell Nyakudya, during a meeting for heads of Government departments from the province recently, the official Mr Isaac Risinamodzi said 67 380 households from the province were benefiting under the drought relief programme.

He said they had submitted a request to have the number of beneficiaries reviewed and they were awaiting approval.

“We have identified 43 393 more households in the province that are food insecure and need to benefit under drought relief programme. We have submitted the request to our head office and we are awaiting approval.

“At the moment we have 67 380 households that are receiving grain on a monthly basis under the drought relief programme. During the third quarter we distributed 10 257 tonnes of grain to these households. The main challenge which beneficiaries are facing is transportation of the grain as they are struggling to raise transport money,” he said.

Mr Risinamodzi said they were also conducting the harmonised cash transfer programme in Bulilima and Mangwe Districts but were struggling to distribute the money due to cash shortages. He said efforts were underway to make electronic transfers to beneficiaries.

Speaking during the same meeting, Matabeleland South provincial livestock production and development officer, Mrs Simangaliphi Ngwabi, said a total of 1 147 hectares of land was under winter wheat and so far, 647 hectares had been harvested with an average yield of four tonnes per hectare out of an expected six tonnes per hectare.

She said the yield had been affected by power cuts and fuel challenges had delayed the harvesting process thereby affecting the quality of the wheat.

Mrs Ngwabi said under the Command Agriculture programme, they had earmarked 948 hectares under maize production and 1 260 hectares under soya production. She said the registration process of farmers under the programme was underway.

An official from the Rural Electrification Agency said as a measure to speed up the process of electrifying rural institutions they were now conducting internal wiring and tubing in schools.

“All along we have been putting up electricity poles but now we are going a step further by providing internal wiring and tubing in schools.

“We procure wiring, tubing and meters which are said to be not readily available.

“We want communities to feel and experience the benefits of the rural electrification programme.

“We noticed that even after we have put up the poles some institutions or communities stay for long without power connections due to costs and challenges in accessing equipment.

“We are working with Zesa under this initiative. For alternative power we are working on biogas and we have various projects across the province under this initiative,” he said. — @ DubeMatutu