COMMUNITIES in Nkayi District are working on alleviating poverty and creating job opportunities in line with global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through scaling up commercial poultry and livestock production.

The district has arguably the largest herd of goats in the country and the best road-runner chickens, which are on demand locally and abroad. There are also vast opportunities in cattle production as well as teak timber harvesting and processing.

Despite this rich resource endowment, Nkayi is ranked among the poorest in the country in terms of income per capita. Business operations within the district are also being hampered by poor transportation service due to bad roads and weak network connectivity.

On Friday the Minister of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Dr Sithembiso Nyoni, handed over solar-powered egg incubation equipment to three groups at Gwelutshena Development Centre, marking the launch of the massive poultry project, the first of this kind in Nkayi.

The beneficiaries are organised under the Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) and each received a set of solar-powered kit (panels, batteries, cables) and an egg incubator with capacity to hatch 500 chicks after every 21 days. These groups are drawn from Wards 4 and 5 in Nkayi North and Ward 17 from Nkayi South.

The equipment is worth US$2 000 each and was sourced through the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which works closely with the Government on enterprise development at grassroot level.

In her keynote address, Dr Nyoni, who is also the legislator for Nkayi North constituency, said enhancing rural productive capacity was critical to growing the economy towards an upper middle-income status by 2030. She said Nkayi District alone has established 60 co-operatives with nearly 2 000 members who have been trained in various income generating projects such as poultry, art and craft, bee keeping, carpentry and so on.

“These projects buttress Government’s efforts to alleviate poverty in communities and feed into Vision 2030,” said Dr Nyoni.

“This egg incubator system is a vibrant business model and beneficiaries must use it productively and profitably. Nkayi also has the largest number of goats of good quality and road runner chickens.

“We commend UNDP for partnering with us and we challenge you to make this project grow and multiply into each of the 30 wards in Nkayi District.”

UNDP representative, Mr Vusumuzi Tshuma, said their community enterprise empowerment drive was aimed at increasing household incomes and alleviating poverty in line with SDGs.
“Nkayi has rich forests for timber, livestock and so on. We can use the resources we have to create wealth. We work closely with Government to assist organised groups to increase production and marketing of their produce,” he said.

“Community development has to start from grassroot and together we can transform ourselves and contribute to Vision 2030.”

Speaking on behalf of the community, Ward 7 councillor, Mrs Gloria Moyo, paid tribute to the Government and its partners for facilitating empowerment programmes.

She expressed hope that the beneficiaries would use the equipment to grow their business and be self-sufficient. The councillor also highlighted that several women-led craft making projects were assisting households in earning incomes.