By Yamikani Yapuwa

Thyolo, March 9, Mana:  Self Help Africa (SHA) on Friday donated a vehicle to Thyolo District Council’s Agriculture Office to ensure that there is easy monitoring of activities and interventions implemented under the Kulima Better Programme which phased out in 2022.

Handing over the vehicle to District Commissioner for Thyolo, SHAs Project Coordinator Khwima Msiska said the vehicle will help the agriculture office to ease transport challenges that were there.

“SHA has been implementing a lot of projects in Thyolo district and Kulima Better programme which was funded by the European Union (EU) from 2018 to 2020 is one of them.

“So in agreement with the donor, we thought it wise to donate the vehicle to agriculture office to sustain the activities and interventions which the project implemented in Thyolo,” said Msiska.

Msiska also appealed to the council to take good care of the vehicle for it to be in good condition thereby serving its intended purpose.

Acting Director of Agriculture Services at the council, Mphatso Mbulukwa hailed SHA for the donation saying it will promote easy monitoring of agriculture activities.

“We have five Extension Planning Areas which are very far away and the office has more than 30 officers, so relying on two vehicles only was very difficult.

“With the coming in of this extra car, we hope that it will ease some of the challenges which we were facing in terms of mobility,” said Mbulukwa.

She said the car will also help in following up so many interventions under Kulima Better to ensure that the gains which were registered during the project period are sustained.

“So we will be using the vehicle to visit those farmers and see that we maintain the gains,” she added.

In his remarks, District Commissioner for Thyolo Hudson Kuphanga described the vehicle as a blessing to the council and the agriculture sector which will ease mobility issues.

“We are happy with the gesture as we have seen a lot of projects exiting the district without leaving their assets behind for easy continuation of monitoring of the interventions implemented,” said Kuphanga.