17 May 2021

The Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security is planning to improve agriculture after realising it has regressed. 

 Assistant minister, Ms Beauty Manake said government intended to gear up the sector and make it profitable.

Speaking at a women convention organised by Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, Ms Manake said the ministry had started to review the agriculture policy because it was outdated. 

Ms Manake also said it was worrisome that the sector contributed less to the GDP.  

She noted that in 2018 the import bill stood at P7.6 billion and that only P1 billion was spent on local agricultural produce while P6 billion was spent on importing food.

She further noted that local production costs were high, and that the country was importing almost everything. Ms Manake also said the participation of locals in the food value chain was almost non existent.  

She urged young people to explore other sectors such as the energy sector, saying it had the potential to grow the country’s economy.  

To final year students in events management who organised the event, she urged them to take the positives presented by the various sectors and to close existing gaps through their events. 

 She also noted that events brought people together and that lives could be transformed.

She also commended the university for including events management in their curriculum, saying organising and planning skills were needed everywhere.

Limkokwing vice chancellor, Dr Gape Kaboyakgomo said the convention demonstrated that the university believed in market, industry-ready and techno-savvy students. It was themed  empowering women in agriculture: A strive to a self-sufficient country.

Giving an overview of the project, the programme leader at the university, Ms Kesolofetse Njirayafa said the students were tasked to come up with real-life projects to sharpen their professional experience and to equip them with the necessary skills as well as the technical know-how in planning and organising. 

Ms Grace Tlhalerwa, one of the students who carried out the project, said they came up with an idea to empower women in the agricultural sector. ends