Mogale City Local Municipality and the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) joined forces to address the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality in rural areas.
The two entities recently rolled out a poverty alleviation initiative which seeks to actively include local people in tackling poverty, joblessness and inequality. The partnership, headed by GDARD and Mogale City through Ward 23 Councillor Molefi Selibo, saw more than 100 individuals become the latest Homestead Food Garden Project beneficiaries.
Homestead Food Garden Project is a poverty alleviation intervention that targets food insecure households. The basic aim of the project is to teach people to grow vegetables in their homesteads.
Councillor Selibo explained that beneficiaries were selected in community meetings. He said selected individuals participated in a volunteer programme for a period of five working days, working a minimum of four hours a day.
“The municipality is happy that people in rural parts of Mogale City benefited from the Homestead Food Garden Project,” Councillor Selibo said.
“Participants were selected in community meetings and were able to participate in a volunteer programme where they received starter-packs to start food gardens in their respective homes,” he added.
The starter packs included a spade, garden fork, rake, hand hoe, watering can, and six types of seeds, organic fertilizers and compost. The seeds include spinach, beetroot, onion, carrot, beans, and tomatoes.
Victoria Nzuza, GDARD Agricultural Advisor said her department identified areas that needed assistance and rural parts of Mogale City were identified as needy areas.
“We are proud to announce that our partnership with Mogale City has yielded positive results. We are happy that the project was successfully implemented and we look forward to seeing beneficiaries sustain their food gardens to put food on the table for their families,” Nzuza said.
“The projects is primarily aimed at addressing hunger, alleviate poverty and food insecurity through household level vegetable production. However, we will employ our monitoring and evaluation in conjunction with Mogale City to make sure that the starter packs are used correctly to benefit the families,” she added.