Didiza urges rural communities to grow own food

Agriculture minister Thoko Didiza has encouraged people in rural areas to use the little patches of land they have for their own nutrition and food security.

The minister of agriculture, land reform and rural development was speaking in Lusikisiki on Tuesday ahead of World Food Day on Wednesday.

Didiza and OR Tambo district mayor Thokozile Sokanyile also visited Magwa Tea Estate and other projects that provide employment opportunities for people in the district.

The area is one of the poorest in SA.

Didiza said: “The resources that the government has are thinly spread over a number of areas that it must attend to.

“Therefore, how communities themselves take part in resolving their own challenges is an important element that we must continue to encourage.”

She said the national government would look at what they could do to intervene in the tea estate.

“It’s one of the projects that actually takes more people into employment, as our challenge is that unemployment has been on the increase.”

Magwa factory manager King Masangwana said the estate was improving with the government’s cash injections over the past three years.

He said they had managed to hire more people to work at the estate and fight poverty.

“On a monthly basis now, we are producing more than 20,000 tons of tea,” said Masangwana.

“Our aim is to sell our tea in other countries and we thank the government for the intervention.

“Everybody was starving here, but now we see change.”

He said they were in the process of buying machines that manufacture tea bags.

Xoliswa Ndayi, 56, a harvester from Hombe village, said: “At home, I have about a hectare where I plant vegetables to feed my family.

“It’s up to us to create food stability using our own hands and I want to encourage other families to farm their gardens.”