13 Aug 2014

The Vice President, Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe has appealed to residents of Diloro to work hard in order to turn Diloro Development Association (DDA) into a sustainable development project. 

Addressing a kgotla meeting at Diloro on August 11, Dr Kedikilwe said DDA was still behind in terms of its growth but all the stakeholders should join together in order to turn it into a viable business.

He said projects that were similar to DDA, which was a sorghum milling plant, could play a major role in improving the livelihoods of the residents.

Dr Kedikilwe who also Mmadinare MP, added that the project needed to be properly managed and when it was finally up and running, reliance on the sole processing of sorghum should be avoided. 

He said the residents should in future use the plant to process other agricultural produce such as livestock feeds and others not just processing sorghum mill for human consumption. 

He said government had realised that the projects that used to sustain the lives of the communities and collapsed due to some reasons could be funded and start operating again and would ultimately benefit the communities. 

Dr Kedikilwe advised the residents to engage in a variety of the government programs which were designed for them to improve their livelihoods. 

On other issues, Dr Kedikilwe applauded the public servants who were based in his constituency for serving the residents diligently despite the challenges they were facing. 

... page 3

He said government was aware that there were challenges which were facing the public servants such as lack of accommodation and shortage of transport but they should be complemented for their job well done. 

Dr Kedikilwe implored the public servants to show the willpower and the urge to work so that the residents should benefit from their services.

The district agriculture coordinator, Mr Sylvestor Mswela appealed to residents of Diloro to increase food production by bringing idle land into production. 

He asked the residents to take advantage of the ISPAAD program which was introduced by government to help them to make their own food. 

He said a decision has been taken to train tractor operators on how to use row planting equipment before the 2014/15 ploughing season.

He said it was realised that tractor operators had less knowledge about row planting and the government continued to pay them a lot of money while farmers got nothing from their fields.

Mr Mswela however said he was optimistic that after training the tractor operators, the farmers would get high yields. ENDS