Date: 05/06/2009

Source: Democratic Alliance

Title: DA: Bosman: Speech by the DA shadow minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries at the State of the Nation debate in Parliament

Hon Speaker, Hon President, Hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, Hon Members of the House.

I would like to start by congratulating Minister Joemat-Pettersson on her appointment as minister of agriculture. Forestry and Fisheries as well as the Deputy Minister Pieter Mulder on his appointment.

Dit was met teleurstelling, maar sekerlik nie onverwags nie dat landbou nie deur u as van besondere belang vir die land se ekonomiese groei en stabiliteit uitgesonder was in u Presidentsrede nie. Die belangrikheid van die landbousekter as voedsel en veselverskaffer, asook werkgewer en as verdiener van buitelandse valuta was in die verlede nooit deur die ANC as sulks erken nie. Die gesegde lui dat enige land wat sy landbou misken is uiteindelik tot mislukking gedoem!

Mr President, The Democratic Alliance supports a united, profitable, sustainable and thriving agricultural sector in South Africa.

We believe that it is critical for our food security and that South Africa needs to be the food exporter that it once was. Apart from ensuring South Africa's food security, the primary agricultural sector employ a workforce of 796 000, consisting of 431 664 full time and 365 142 part time workers, or 8.8% of the total workforce.

It is in this context that we fully supported the Department of Agriculture when, in October last year, it unveiled its plan to increase the country's agricultural production by 10-15% over the next two years. However with the regulatory position of the previous governments, I am afraid to say that this will not be achieved.

As a result of its confrontational stance to commercial agriculture, we have seen a huge disinvestment and a decline in employment in this important sector. The threats from government to do away with the "willing buyer willing seller" principle and the now shelved Expropriation Bill, certainly also contributed tothe decline in investor confidence. We cannot afford to repeat these mistakes.

The challenges that we now face to restore confidence and improve production are the following.

Government must have a clear regulatory framework based on the free market system to regulate and enhance investment in the sector. This will include that all land redistributed under our land reform programs, are carried out at market related prices and that there is an unequivocal adoption of the willing seller principle by our government.

We must overhaul the failure of our land reform programs by ensuring that the new land beneficiaries have adequate post settlement financial and other support. We need to identify people with an interest in farming, we need to train them and have proper mentorship programs with former land owners, to ensure smooth skills transfer.

The Department‘s Extension Services have completely collapsed, and need to be rejuvenated as a matter of urgency.

New farm owners should have freehold title ownership to unlock the economic potential of their assets - specially also in communal rural areas.

Market access is of vital importance for small-scale producers to secure adequate prices for their products.

More money will have to be put into Research and Development as well as the use of biotechnology to its fullest possible extent to increase production.

Another critical issue which will have a vast impact on agriculture is climate change and we will have to focus on strategies to mitigate the adverse impact, especially on water availability and adapted plant biodiversity.

In conjunction with other Departments, there needs to be more resources allocated to infrastructure development such as roads, rail and communication in order for our products to reach their markets on time.

Proper management of natural disasters is critical for the long term sustainability of this sector. We need to accelerate the promulgation of a Disaster Management Act. Currently the management of disaster strikes are ad hoc and take far too long to be implemented.

We need to revisit our trade and tariff policy in order to align it with the policy space allowed for in the DOHA round of the WTO agreements in order to make sure that our local production remains competitive and profitable.

Lastly, the high crime rate in rural areas should as a matter of urgency be addressed by ensuring that effective sector policing is in place.

In closure, Mr President, the Democratic Alliance looks forward to a more cooperative relationship with the Minister, and her department in order to take agriculture development, food security and our country forward.

I thank you.