WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-06-08 Time: 09:00:02 Posted By: News Poster
By Loyiso Langeni
Johannesburg – A THREE-year project, costing R45m, to help ensure food security in poverty-stricken Guinea in west Africa is showing positive results, says the Department of International Relations and Co-operation.
The project, which was started in 2008, is part of SA’s strategy to stabilise poor African countries and stem the influx of refugees and economic migrants to SA. Since the end of apartheid in 1994, SA has experienced an influx of immigrants, most notably from neighbouring African countries.
Mxolisi Nkosi, the department’s deputy director-general for the Africa region, said that “the project was to demonstrate SA’s commitment to contribute significantly to food security and skills development” in Guinea.
An analyst on Africa’s political economy at the Institute for Global Dialogue, Francis Ikome, said: “SA’s foreign policy elite are aware that the country’s political and economic advances would not be sustainable as long as many countries on the continent continue to be afflicted by poverty, conflict and generalised underdevelopment.”
Guinea is one of the world’s poorest nations, with a per capita gross national income of 420, according to the World Bank. The department had been spearheading a rice and vegetable production project as part of efforts to rehabilitate the peasant farming community and ensure food security in Guinea.
The scheme has so far spent up to R15m in purchasing agricultural equipment such tractors, fertiliser , pesticides, seeds and rice, and training and mentorship programmes.
This sum included paying for the services of 15 rice experts from Vietnam, contracted to transfer skills to the local farming community.
A pilot project to plant rice in the rural communities of Kamsa, Mankountan and Tamboni has directly benefited 200 farmers.
As a result of this, up to 3000 communities in surrounding areas have also indirectly benefited from the project through employment opportunities and the consumption of rice, the nation’s staple diet.
The government of Guinea had agreed to donate 10ha of land to experiment with the growing of rice. Rice harvesting has increased from an initial production of one ton per hectare to six tons per hectare.
Plans are afoot to increase the land allocated for the programme by 300ha.
The vegetable project is still in the early stages of conceptualisation.
Farming co-operatives are planned as a way of encouraging the peasants to become commercial farmers of rice and to ensure the farming methods learnt from the Vietnamese are effectively applied.
Anthony Miyeni, the department’s director for west Africa, said the idea to assist Guinea was conceived on state visits paid by former presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. It was apparent Guinea was suffering from dire food shortages and the South African government was spurred into action.
Mr Ikome said SA could not afford an inward-looking policy. It was “inevitable” that as a regional economic power, SA would be expected to help struggling African countries.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 8 June 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201006080317.html?viewall=1