Government appeals for rural development support
The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Kondwani Nankhumwa, has appealed for continued support from organisations to help alleviate poverty in rural areas.
The minister made the remarks on Monday in Thyolo where he inspected some projects being implemented under the Rural Livelihood and Economic Enhancement Programme (RLEEP) in the district.
According to Nankhumwa, urbanisation can be reduced by empowering the people in the rural areas through projects that can help them employ themselves.
“Rural development remains key to curb urbanisation in the country. You know the high rates of urbanisation currently facing Malawi whereby a lot of people especially the youth from the villages are trekking to urban centres looking for employment and business opportunities. But what we have seen today in the project is impressive and on behalf of government I can say, that is the way to go,” said Nankhumwa
Nankhumwa further revealed that his ministry would soon introduce the Rural Development Strategy Programme that would encompass everything to deal with the development of rural areas.
A dairy specialist for one of the projects dubbed Dairy Value Chain Development, Brown Phulusa, said they saw the need to help dairy farmers maximise the resources they have for higher milk yield. He added that milk bulking centres meant to help farmers store their milk produce would soon start operating.
One of the beneficiaries of the project, Erason Matemba wore smiles as he thanked RLEEP for the intervention it made as his dairy farming has tremendously improved his life.
“Before RLEEP came, my cows were producing very little milk. Since they taught us ways of how to take care of the cows, things have changed. At the moment, I produce double the milk I used to produce. I’m even thinking of employing someone”, said Matemba
RLEEP was established six years ago and has been working in 10 districts across the country. The project’s objective is to advance the integration of smallholder agriculture and rural agribusiness into the commercial sector through improved productivity.
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