08 Jul 2013

The good number of females who have embraced government's poverty eradication initiatives in the Southern District is a step in the right direction, says Mr Mosele Ramakapu.

Mr Ramakapu, a chief technical assistant with the Ministry of Agriculture in Kanye, said out of the 88 youths assisted under the programme since 2011, 61 were  females up to 40 years; which was a complete contrast to men within the same age bracket.

He noted that although the development could be due to a number of reasons among them, the fact that more females were hard hit by poverty than their males’ counterparts or the fact that numerically females dominate males, the feat could only mean poverty levels would be reduced across the district.

He said 451 backyard gardens, 12 bee keeping projects ,  six conservation farming projects , 54 small stock projects and 98 Tswana chickens had been rolled out throughout the six constituencies that make up the Southern District.

That withstanding, Mr Ramakapu cited water shortage, transport, and shortage of small stock and Tswana chickens as some of the challenges. “We are also faced with shortage of suppliers of building for poultry houses ending up buying from the outside district,” he said.

However, he said the MoA had put in place interventions such as sourcing small stock and Tswana chickens outside the district and liaising with other departments for provision of transport.  ENDS