Lekopanye Mooketsi
1 December 2008
P8 million has been disbursed to the CEDA Young Farmers Fund in the Southern District, Parliament has been told.
The Assistant Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Guma Moyo, said the CEDA office in Kanye has received 68 projects valued at P27.2 million since the CEDA Young Farmers Fund started operating in April last year.
Out of these, 23 projects valued at P8.7 million were approved while 15 projects valued at P5.4 millions were rejected for non-viability. The remaining 30 projects, which are valued at P13.1 million, are currently being evaluated.
Of the 23 approved projects, one was for horticulture, four for poultry, small stock and piggery each, while six projects were for beef cattle and another four for dairy.
Moyo said 17 of the approved projects are fully running. The remaining six have not started because their promoters are yet to fulfil conditions of approval. The operating projects have created 44 jobs against the targeted 771.
Moyo described the performance of the running projects as "satisfactory". "Production of the projects also depicts a positive future performance," he said.
The Assistant Minister was responding to a question by the MP for Kanye North, Calvin Batsile who had asked him to apprise the House of the number and performance of CEDA Young Farmers Fund's beneficiaries in the Southern District since the programme's inception.
Speaking in an earlier interview, the Coordinator of CEDA Young Farmers Fund, Thabo Thamane, said the majority of projects approved countrywide were in cattle breeding. Other investments were in horticulture, poultry, piggeries, dry land farming and small stock.
The CEDA Young Farmers Fund was initiated to encourage young people to venture into agriculture by the government last year. It was established to reverse some of the challenges facing the country such as poverty, unemployment, rural-urban migration and low participation of youth in agriculture.
Among some of its objectives are the development of sustainable youth enterprises and employment creation by rewarding competitiveness and discouraging inefficiency; the development of vertical integration and horizontal linkages between enterprises and primary industries in agriculture; and the reduction of the migration of young people to urban centres through the creation of job opportunities in rural areas.
Financial assistance provided by the CEDA Young Farmers Fund is in the form of loans at subsidised interest rates. The loan may be used for infrastructure development required for the project or to cover working capital.
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