N$125 000 to revive Siya horticulture project

Siya - Efforts by the Kavango West region to fully revive the Siya Horticulture Project in the Kapako constituency on Tuesday received another boost as the Watyako Foundation and its partners injected a donation valued at N$125 000.

Watyako partnered with Agribank, Super Imfex Trading and Tondoro Investment to donate equipment and materials worth N$55 000 while another partner, the Rundu Vocational Training Centre (RVTC), committed an amount of N$70 000 to train those involved in the project on horticulture at its centre as well as monitoring and project evaluation implementation.

During the handover, the foundation indicated that the project and its needs were identified in March this year through the Kavango West Regional Council.

This was after it had approached the office of the governor in January this year to identify a critical food security initiative beneficial to the community which is in dire need of support to benefit from its Farming First project.

“We then reached out to potential sponsors as partners and collaborators to come on board and support this noble food security initiative that is seeking to address unemployment among women, youth and people living with disabilities,” said the foundation’s founder and board chairperson, Salmi Mvula.

She added that through the foundation’s Farming First project, they seek to render their utmost support to food security initiatives, not only to alleviate poverty and hunger in communities, but also to reduce unemployment gaps and enhance households’ capacity to access food, targeting the remotest areas in the country.

Meanwhile, RVTC’s manager Lukas Kornelius encouraged those who will receive training to fully capitalise on it.

“We will make sure that you get every important detail that will take you off from the ground from this training that we are going to give you,” he stated.

At the same event, regional governor Sirkka Ausiku said the donations came at the right time when the revival of the project tops the regional agenda.

She noted that the revival of the project is seen as an intervention which will contribute to overcoming some of the challenges experienced by horticulture producers in the region, such as the inconsistent production or supply of local horticulture products.

“The aspect of capacity-building is very important, and I’m very happy that training forms part of the donation, which will enable the project members to adapt to modern agricultural practices,” the governor added.

She furthermore called on the regional council to ensure that the beneficiaries make good use of the donations and effectively monitor the project, adding “In the same vein, I call for the active participation of all beneficiaries in the project implementation.”

Ausiku’s statement was read on her behalf by the regional council’s acting director for planning and development, Egidius Nambara.

Last year, the regional council allocated the 12-hectare Siya project to three categories of beneficiaries, namely the youth, women and people living with disabilities in the constituency in an effort to revive it.

The donations included a water tank, wheelbarrows, spades, sprinkler pyramids, bags of cement, fencing posts, mesh diamond wires, farm gates, hoes handles, raised neck agriculture hoes and gardening dragline hoses.

*Stefanus Nambara is an Information Officer in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT), based at Nkurenkuru in Kavango West.