AGRICULTURAL FOOD BASKET INITIATIVE LAUNCH

18 August 2021

Mpumalanga Premier Ms Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane and the MEC for Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs Mr Mandla Msibi will launch the Agricultural Food Basket Initiative. This initiative seeks to improve the food and nutritional security of vulnerable households in rural, urban and peri-urban areas of the Province amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

To achieve this, the Mpumalanga Provincial Government has identified the Manzana area in the Chief Albert Luthuli Local Municipality for the establishment of a 1.5 hectare for a nursery to produce vegetable seedlings to supply 56 projects and the surrounding areas. Of the 664 identified beneficiaries, 424 are females and 222 are youth. The project will contribute towards job creation, with an envisaged over a thousand permanent jobs.

This project is one of the many poverty alleviation initiatives introduced by the Provincial Government. In the 2005/6 financial year, the Masibuyele Emasimini flagship programme, designed to encourage people to use fallow fields to fight hunger and poverty, was introduced. In the 2017/18 financial year, the programme was renamed Phezukomkhono Mlimi, to intensify the call for farming as a livelihood, targeting rural communities and farmers.

The Agricultural Food Basket Initiative will be launched under the theme: “Every space is Phezukomkhono Mlimi site: Turning Mpumalanga Green”. It comes in the wake of efforts by the Provincial Government to stimulate the economy through the Mpumalanga Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (MERRP) amid the pandemic.

Details of the launch are as follows:

Date: 28 August 2021
Venue: Inkalane CPA Site, eManzana (Chief Albert Luthuli Local Municipality)
Time: 09h00

The media is invited.

For RSVP contact Ms Zanele Shabangu on 072 089 9556 (DARDLEA) or Ms Sibongile Mkani-Mpolweni (Premier’s Spokesperson) on 082 967 2138.

ENDS...


Issued by the Mpumalanga Provincial Government

(A) Provincial Government’s Spokesperson: George Mthethwa
Tel: (013) 766 2242
Mobile: 083 302 2774
E-mail: gpmthethwa@mpg.gov.za