Durban — The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has been able to create more than 590 job opportunities under a programme to develop young people.
That was according to MEC Super Zuma during a celebration of youth in agriculture event on Friday in ward 9 in Mandeni, north of Durban. Zuma also invited young people to participate to develop the agricultural industry.
He said that in order for agriculture to continue to be sustainable, it needed young people, who were the future of the country. Zuma said that since his deployment as MEC, he had travelled to KZN districts interacting with their stakeholders, young farmers, on issues relating to their agricultural activities.
Zuma said that they agreed that it was important to address the issues raised by young people, which among other things was to unlock the agricultural potential in KZN. He said they needed to direct government resources to many agricultural activities taking place in many rural communities, for both subsistence and small-scale farmers. They will also increase assistance and offer a strong distribution of seed and seedling programmes, which were a cornerstone for smaller farmers, especially rural women and young people.
“I told the head of the department that the rate of change in the agricultural industry in KwaZulu-Natal should be increased. All these houses should have gardens, young people should establish their own agricultural businesses. All this needs to be done with the help of the government. That is why we cannot tolerate inaction by government officials,” Zuma said.
He said that before they got to Mandeni, they started at a project for young people in the Ntshanga area where young people produced food to help needy communities.
“In this project, they have a list of households and needy people who do not have food, but were taking pills for various illnesses. The food grown there is distributed to needy households,” Zuma said.
He said that in Mandeni, they were there to present the Lunginhlahla Project, a project for a young person and a woman.
“Lunginhlahla is a project that produces laying hens. The good thing about these two projects is that they are funded by the government through collaboration with the community. Lunginhlahla is sponsored under our entity, which is the Department of ADA, and at the one in Ntshanga we worked with the community to install irrigation, fencing and seeds that were needed. What makes us happy is that today (Friday) we attended two projects for young people,” Zuma said.
“There is a project aimed at fighting poverty and there is a project to improve trade in the agricultural industry.”
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