Limpopo Province celebrated the World Food Day (WFD) on Tuesday, 12 October 2010 at Ga-Kgatla Village in Blouberg Municipality. The MEC for Agriculture in Limpopo, MEC Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, indicated in her keynote address, the importance of the WFD. She said the WFD is used to intensify public awareness of the world food problem and strengthen solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
She indicated that although hunger, malnutrition and poverty are a worldwide problem, Africans are the hardest hit. She said the government always make efforts to alleviate and fight poverty in communities; hence government launched the War on Poverty Campaign at the same village. The MEC mentioned that last year, with Premier Cassel Mathale in the lead, vegetable tunnels were donated to families.
“Before the event, we visited some of the families. It is encouraging to see that some of them have grown vegetables. It shows that indeed, our coming here last year was fruitful,” she said. The MEC further identified interventions available in her department meant for addressing food insecurity challenges. The interventions included the Household Food Production and Micro Enterprise Projects Infrastructure Development Programmes.
In these programmes, MEC Letsatsi-Duba state, poor households, dry-land and smallholder farmers received various assistance ranging from seeds, fertilisers, garden tools, pesticides, layers (egg laying chickens), broilers, feeds, feeders, drinkers, housingfor pigs and poultry, boreholes to medicines. These serve as starter packs for the first production cycle, after which the beneficiaries are expected to sustain themselves from the produce.
Limpopo province hosted the WFD under theme, “United against Hunger.” The provincial WFD was a partnership of the Limpopo Department of Agriculture, National Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and some government departments.
For more information contact:
Kenny Mathivha
082 450 1331.
Limpopo celebrates the 2010 World Food Day
Province
