Road fixing sand leaves donga at Ekupheleni
M- Homegrown School Feeding (HGSF) has supported over 24 000 pupils and 700 smallholder farmers.
This was shared by World Food Programme (WFP) Head of Office Deepak Shah during the celebration of Africa School Feeding Day 2022 at Dingizwe Primary School on Thursday. This celebration was based on the theme; nutrition and human capital development in Africa through increased investment in HGSF.
Shah said he was pleased to be part of the project and celebration, mostly because of its impact. “The project has supported over 24 000 pupils, and a total of about 700 smallholder farmers from 18 registered farmer organisations.”
However, Shah is pleased that “out of that 700, women constitute 62 per cent of these individual farmers.”
ECommodities
He further revealed that WFP was working with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Ministry of Agriculture and stakeholders have worked together to capacitate the smallholder farmers through trainings and the provision of equipment, as a means for them to supply commodities of international standard to neighbouring schools and other markets.
This, he said, contributed to the betterment of livelihoods and improved the economic status of emaSwati. “When food is procured locally, it contributes to stable markets, boosts local agriculture, impacts rural transformation and strengthens local food systems,” he said.
He stated that African countries including Eswatini, are among the top advocates of school feeding
lIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllllllllllllllllllIIIIIIllll – The idiom of robbing Peter to pay Paul has been witnessed by the people of Ekupheleni.
The people of this area have been left with a donga as a result of months of sand digging carried out by a construction company to fill up another donga.
The digging is happening by the roadside towards Londunduma High School along the Motshane-Sigangeni Road. Since February this year, the construction company has been digging out sand from Ekupheleni, loading it in trucks and ferrying it to Mafutha located within the same constituency to fill up a donga that was created on the main road.
PurPoses
“At first we thought the sand was being dug by residents for domestic purposes, but as time went on we realised that the truck ferrying the sand was making many trips per day,” said a resident. It was said that the trucks worked from early morning
Minister of Education and Training Lady Mabuza with Dingizwe Primary pupils. Minister of Education and Training Lady Mabuza making her speech during the celebration.
globally and have made enormous strides in expanding school meal programmes across the continent improving child health, nutrition, and investing in future generations. 80 per cent of African school meal programmes are funded by national governments, thus he said, he was proud that Eswatini is among those.
Shah explained that HGSF programmes, are globally cornerstone of development that change lives as children are retained in schools and communities, and economies grow from strength to strength. Studies, he said, have shown that school feeding programmes can increase enrolment by an average of nine per cent and are effective in until at about 7pm, with some of the heavy machinery remaining there overnight. He said after a few weeks they noticed that the sand deficit was manifesting, resulting to a donga. He said they feared that this could lead to more damage as it was a threat to their livestock as well. “We have since reported the matter to Eswatini Environment Authority (EEA) and they promised to do an inspection. However, we have not heard anything from them.” Ekupheleni’s Headman identified only as Malindzisa said the royal kraal granted the contractor permission to dig out sand. “The ministry of works approached us on behalf of the contractor and asked that we allow them to dig out sand. We wrote them a letter giving them permission to do so, provided that they would then level the place afterwards.”Malindzisa said they did not want the contractor to leave the place without rehabilitating it because it could pose danger to the environment and to their livestock.
He said they were made to understand that the sand that was dug from the area would be used to fill increasing girls’ attendance which can, in turn, protect them from gender-based threats, such as child marriage.
Shah commended Ministry of Education for upscaling this game changer of a project nationally, in the interim providing a sustainable market to local smallholder farmers to continue supplying commodities of international standards to more schools.
To end hunger by 2030 and to ensure that our country is food secure, he said, “we cannot leave behind the engagement of the private sector with its ability to access finance for smallholder farmers.”
ProjeCt
He further revealed that WFP had supported a group of women smallholder farmers with the infrastructure and inputs (chickens, battery cages, and feed) towards the egg production project, which now supplies eggs to this very school (Dingizwe Primary).
While, Minister of Education Lady Howard Mabuza was proud to state that the programme (providing meals) was beneficial not only to health and education but also on wealth creation for the communities and the country at large.
Mabuza said:
“I am
ProCess
proud to up a roadside donga at Mafutha, along the Mbabane/Motshane highway.
The Indvuna said they were also aware that some residents were complaining about the duration of the process, something they had no control over as work was still in progress. It turned out the residents were not only concerned about the environmental impact of the sand digging, but also the fact that they were not allowed to dig out sand for domestic usage. “We were surprised that a whole company was granted permission to borrow sand in large amounts when we are struggling to find sand to fix our houses.”
EEA Environmental Information Officer Belusile Mhlanga described this as a borrow pit, where sand is taken for the purposes of satisfying a land shortage elsewhere. She said this process could only be undertaken legally with the approval of the EEA.
“The contractor or anyone acting on behalf of the contractor can forward a request which we usually mention that the school feeding programme has ensured that the learners receive at least one nutritious and safe meal in all public primary and secondary schools for effective learning.”
Mabuza highlighted that through partnerships with two UN agencies: World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the kingdom of Eswatini has joined other states in the introduction of the HGSF.
She said, “This is a pilot programme aimed to benefit the learners, farmers and the entire community by improving the school feeding basket through purchasing the food commodities from the local smallholder farmers around the schools.” The pilot is being implemented by the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Agriculture in 50 primary and secondary schools throughout the country.
Since the beginning of the pilot, she said, the programme had succefully delivered home-grown maize, beans and vegetables (such as tomatoes, onions, spinach and cabbages) in the pilot schools. While of recent, eggs have been added into the home-grown basket.
look at before approval. Basically we need a satisfactory environment management plan before we can grant a clearance or authorisation,” she said.
result
Mhlanga said they did not want situations whereby sand borrowing would result in unrehabilitated places like the infamous Nkoyoyo Dam, from which quarry was mined some years ago.
An independent civil engineer said reclamation of borrow pits should take place as soon as operation at a site had ended and the project for which the borrow pit was opened is concluded. “This is important especially where no new road project is envisaged within the area and any future road project will not be at close proximity for borrowing from the site to be economical. Reclamation is commenced by moving the spoil heap back to the pit, followed by moving adjoining topsoil to fill the pit. There is no importation of fill material required.”He said this operation went along with compaction of the fill material using roller and testing the compacted earth to achieve the original soil characteristics and ground condition, finally, accomplished by turning the
Mabuza stated that the project aligns with this year’s theme for Africa; nutrition and human capital development in Africa through increased investment in home grown school feeding.
“The project aims to improve nutritional content of the school feeding basket thus contributing to adequate nutrition, which will in-turn, translate to better human capital development,” she said.
Thus, she stated that it was imperative for the country to invest in the provision of adequate nutrition from the beginning of life in order to advance human capital development.
Farmers and communities remain key in the success of the home-grown school feeding programme. Therefore, Mabuza urged farmers (especially, youth and women farmers) to participate in this programme.
ACCess
It is worth-noting that HGSF aims to enhance access to basic education and more specifically ensure that school children are well nourished, healthy and able to learn and provide market opportunities for smallholder farmers to improve food security and household income. The HGSF pilot programme was implemented in 28 primary schools, 22 secondary schools benefiting over 24 400 school learners.
Learners receive one cooked lunch time meal per day of rice and bean stew, or pap and bean stew, or pap and vegetable stew or pap, vegetable and eggs.
FAO website states that since third Term of 2019 when HGSF commenced, 736Mt of maize and 82Mt of beans have been procured from smallholder farmers for the pilot schools. “As part of diversifying school meals, a pilot was incorporated in early 2020 to establish the feasibility of local farmers supplying schools with vegetables.
Eight local smallholder farmers delivered vegetables to the pilot schools between February and March 2020.
The introduction of vegetables to the menu was well received and applauded by the students and teachers.
This was followed by the introduction of eggs in 2022, be piloted in all the 50 schools in the country,” clarified FAO Communications Associate, Sakhile Nsingwane.
reclaimed site green.
“The reclaimed site is completed by planting flowers, grass and trees to improve the natural look of a reclaimed site and improve the ecosystem services. Reclaimed site can be used for structural development such as recreational activities, holiday resort and community gardens, depending on the land size.”
When asked about the risks that borrow pits posed, he said although there had been few attempts to quantify potential risks from active and abandoned borrow pits, it was generally understood that the issue of abandoned borrow pits was a major environmental problem. “The operators of borrow pits must agree on reclamation terms before opening the site. Government agencies and communities where the abandoned borrow pits are situated must enforce proper closing and reclamation of borrow pits.” He said lack of proper technical expertise has led to trial pit excavations which increases number of abandoned pits, adding that abandoned borrow pits caused landslides, initiates erosion and attracts dumping of wastes that cause contamination of surface and groundwater.