Villagers urged to shun aid

VILLAGERS here have been urged to shun dependency and start income generating projects in the district anchored on Government’s economic blueprint, Zim-Asset.

The call was made by Zaka district administrator Mr Ndeya Nyede who exhorted the rural folk to take advantage of underutilised water bodies to boost food production.

Mr Nyede was addressing stakeholders during a district consultative meeting to map out ways of steering socio-economic development in the arid district.

The Zaka DA railed against the growing propensity by most rural communities to wait for food handouts instead of pushing for self-reliance.

“Our biggest challenge is to always wait for food handouts instead of working and increasing productivity on our farms, we can only break the poverty cycle if we strive to be self-reliant and not wait for handouts from donors every year,” he said.

Mr Nyede urged villagers in the district to tap into Government initiatives such as Command Agriculture and Command Fisheries to make sure they achieve food self-sufficiency.

“Government is always striving to ensure that there is development and food self-sufficiency amongst its people so that even in times of drought people can be able to put food on their tables.

“Gone are the days when people in rural areas should be waiting for donors to be given handouts, rural communities should fully exploit Government programmes that seek to improve their living standards,” said Mr Nyede.

He said Government had introduced several facilities to extend concessionary loans for income generating projects specifically for the rural folk.

“We need to move away from this disease of dependency and I encourage villagers to form co-operatives in their communities and register so that they can approach Government for seed money to start projects.

“The situation has now changed and the country is moving with the Zimbabwe is open for business mantra, which seeks to improve the living standards of the country’s citizenry,” he said.

Mr Nyede said irrigation had potential to jump-start socio-economic development in the arid Zaka district where there were several underutilised water bodies such as Siya, Bangala and Manjirenji. PERSONAL ACCOUNTS PERSONAL LOANS & OVERDRAFTS MORTGAGE LOANS BUSINESS ACCOUNTS