Date: 01/04/2003
Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs
Title: Didiza: Agriculture & Land Affairs Dept Budget Vote 2003/2004
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND LAND AFFAIRS, Ms THOKO DIDIZA, TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ON THE OCCASION OF THE BUDGET VOTE, Cape Town, April 1, 2003
Madame Speaker
Honourable Members
The package of fruits in front of you is not an April fool's joke - rather it is a token of appreciation from the agricultural sector to yourselves as members of the legislature and consumers of our goods. It is also a gentle reminder of the wealth of diversity in products from the land.
Madam speaker, a year ago we reported on the conclusion of a social compact between government and farmers organisations in support of agricultural development. We also ensured that our budget and the strategic plan as a department reflected the commitments we had made in the Agricultural Sector plan. It is our view that for this social compact to remain all the partners needs to mobilise relevant resources that will support it. The experience of the past year in moving from strategy to action with respect to the implementation of the Sector Strategy for Agriculture has taught us a range of critical lessons in the management of partnerships for development. These lessons will serve as the building blocks for enhancing agriculture's contribution to pushing back the frontiers of poverty and working for a better life for all.
At one level we have some wonderful stories to tell about how people individually and collectively have responded to the call to work together for a better life for all. Today in this Parliament we have Mr and Mrs Ludidi from eLukholweni village at Mt Frere in the Eastern Cape who felt that as citizens of South Africa they can contribute a little of what they have and plough back to the community that has brought them up, but also supported them as small business in that village. They chose to contribute to sustainable food security at local level by buying and donating two tractors to the village so that the community can plough the fields and provide food for themselves. They also built a school in order to ensure that the government's objective of improving the level of our human resource development is attained. Mr and Mrs Ludidi is like me and you. The challenge they pose to all of us is doing something for the communities that have brought us to be where we are today. To you Mama and Tata Ludidi siyabulela, siyazidla ngani njengabemi basemzansi Afrika. Inene nasebunzimeni soloku likho ithemba. You are a living example of what the President said in his state of the nation address last year that we all need to do something in order to push back the frontiers of poverty and development.
Thus we can say with confidence that indeed the tide has turned for the people of South Africa. The winds of progress have prevailed as a result of the partnership between government and people. We now move steadily to new shores of hope and prosperity, confident that we will reach our goals.
I stand here before you today during the Imbizo Focus Week. I started my day by visiting Nyanga and Khayelitsha urban gardens. These gardens have changed the lives of so many families and improved their food security status from what it was before. In these projects there are dedicated men and women who decided they will do something with their hands and the knowledge they have learnt from their forefathers or mothers to feed their children. They have been supported by a faith-based organisation, the Quaker Community, to start their small gardens. We want to thank Mr Jeremmy Routledge, a spouse to Comrade Nozizwe Madlala for his vision and passion of wanting to improve the lives of those who are vulnerable.
Today I also invited a number of people to Parliament as part of the Imbizo focus week to listen to what we have to say about those issues that impact on their livelihood on a daily basis. It is my wish that they will have an appreciation of how this parliament works to resolve their challenges, because it is through their mandate that we are public representatives. I would like to acknowledge the presence in this House of beneficiaries of our programmes in both Agriculture and Land Affairs Departments.
10 YEARS OF TRANSFORMATION OF THE SECTOR
Madam Speaker, honourable members, let us remind ourselves where we come from as this sector.
In 1994 we inherited an agricultural sector that was not inclusive at all and did not reflect the demography of our society. It was also highly regulated with subsidies and financial concessions available to commercial farmers, often at high costs to government. Protectionist policies and barriers to entry helped distort the potential of the agricultural sector.
Thus at the outset, we were faced with the enormous challenge of addressing poverty, landlessness and a general skewed participation of black people youth and women in the sector. Government's response has been to ensure that the right of access to sufficient food and water, to health care and social security is fundamental in the programmes we have implemented in our new democracy.
It is within the context of implementation that it became clear that government's role in terms of policy making and appropriate allocation of resources needs to be complemented by a commitment by the beneficiaries of government policy to partnership, which can result in innovation and the creation of job and income opportunities.
Madam Speaker, income received by farmers of agricultural products continues to increase year on year. Gross income from all agricultural products for the year 2002 increased by 29% to at least R68billion with field crops contributing 38%, animal products 37% and horticultural products 25%. This was as a result of marked increase in producer prices of almost all primary agricultural products, in particular that of maize, flower seed, sorghum, wool and vegetables. In addition production volumes of maize, grain sorghum and sunflower seed also increased. Another exciting development Madam Speaker is the increase in net farm income and cash flow of farmers, which is resulting in the improvement of the debt position of our farmers. Indications at this very hour are that this has resulted in a R2, 6 billion decreases in the farm debt.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SECTOR PLAN
Madam Speaker, the National Department of Agriculture (NDA), the National African Farmers Union (NAFU) and Agri-SA have established an institutional framework to oversee the process of implementing the sector plan.
Through this mechanism we have been able to stimulate the emergence of mentorship's intended to ensure that the beneficiaries of Land Reform and Agricultural Development make good use of their land. The challenge remains to make the practise of sharing of experience and expertise between black and white farmers becomes a norm rather than sporadic or an expression of good will of specific individuals. As a start a sum of R3.7 million has been transferred to the provinces as a training component of the comprehensive farmer support package. In the 2003 - 2004 year's budget we have allocated R10 million for this purpose and are working with the provinces and National Treasury to improve on the availability of government supported farmer support.
The Sector Plan challenges us to work for public private partnerships in the area of research and development. Our experience has shown that in order for us to succeed in building partnerships, we require a clearly articulated vision - which we now have for the sector. We also need to have an agreement on respective roles and responsibilities for each partner; and most importantly, to build Trust among partners - an area that needs more work, given that partners in the sector have different needs and expectations.
As government, we are committed to the implementation of actions to achieve the vision of a united and prosperous agricultural sector. To this end, we have ensured that our budget makes provision for the sector plan priorities.
Madam speaker, we are proud to announce that we already have partnerships in action arising out of our social compact. The National Agricultural Research Forum, a consultative forum where government, the public entities, the universities and technikons involved in agricultural research and technology development and transfer and the private sector, was launched in May last year. This forum enables the partners to share best practise and work for synergies in the optimisation of existing capacity.
Honourable members will recall that prior to 1994 the statistics on agriculture focussed on the white commercial sector and were not reliable for the ex-homeland areas and for black participation. I am pleased to announce that currently the Department of Agriculture is working with Statistics South Africa to conduct an agricultural census that should be a source of more reliable information on the sector. We expect to have preliminary results by December this year. This means for the first time we will have reliable data on the total agricultural sector and we have planned to update this census every five years. The Department funded the census to the tune of R17 million. We have in the mean time completed a survey on rural households which targeted five communal areas which gives us for the first time some useful information on communal rural agricultural. All this data will improve the quality of our planning and effectiveness of our targeting of government interventions.
FOOD SECURITY
Madam Speaker in order to respond comprehensively to the food security challenges, Cabinet approved the Integrated Food Security and Nutrition programme in July last year as one of the key programmes of the Social Cluster. My Ministry through the National Department of Agriculture has taken the lead in ensuring its implementation. The vision of the Integrated Food Security Strategy is to attain universal physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food by all South African at all times to meet their dietary and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Its goal is to eradicate hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity over 2015.
Food Security was of particular concern to us last year as food prices soared. The price of a staple food, maize, was pushed up by more than 120 % and as a result a large number of our rural people in particular became extremely vulnerable to poverty and hunger. In October last year, the Government decided on a number of short and medium term interventions to respond to the looming food crisis. These ranged from immediate relief measures for the poor to instruments of a medium to long-term nature that would help to improve food security and transparency in the food chain supply, as well as price stability.
As a short-term relief measure, Government reached an agreement with Premier Foods, AFGRI and Met-Cash for the introduction of a short-term targeted programme providing a 12,5 kg maize meal which we named Yiyo Lena to be sold at a subsidised price of R25, 99 per bag. Tiger Brands, Nedcor and "Gifts for Givers" also contributed by implementing similar targeted initiatives.
Government allocated a total of R400 million for emergency relief, of which R170 million was channelled to the Southern African Development Community through the World Food Programme and another R230 million for local food emergencies.
Madam Speaker, we have followed up on this by distributing food parcels through the Departments of Social Development nationally and provincially targeting the most vulnerable households in our society. We have further strengthened the linkages between these food parcels and the departments of agriculture's initiatives on food gardens by making available seed, fertiliser and information packs for the recipients of the emergency food. We recognise that whilst these initiatives have gone some way to provide short-term relief they need to be seen within the broader context of our comprehensive social security system and economic development in general.
As part of medium term measures in January this year, I appointed a seven-member Food Pricing Monitoring Committee to monitor the prices of a basket of basic food items and undertake a longer-term analysis of the link between food prices and the structure of the agricultural supply chain. The Committee will recommend specific actions for government to take in the case of identified uncompetitive behaviour within the supply chain. In addition, they are expected to ensure also that the benefits of lower prices as a result of our stronger Rand are filtered through to the consumer. I believe that through this form of monitoring and analysis, we are also trying to encourage and nurture a situation that is more predictable and sustainable for government and consumer alike and that would enable us to be more proactive in this regard.
Madam Speaker, honourable members on Friday last week the 28th of March 2003, the Ministry of Agriculture, Social Development and Health had a joint MinMec with almost all their MECs and representatives of Local Government in order to work at alignment and co-ordination of the implementation of this programme. Presentations from the various Provinces indicated that resources by these three departments have been put aside to address the problem. In each Province no less than R30 million Rands has been earmark. The national departments will also augment these allocations with resources available to them for the same programme.
Madam Speaker our own evaluation of the programme was that it did achieve its desired objective. We were able to target the most vulnerable in our society who were closest to the distribution points. The uptake was very quick. It did however reflect the enormity of the problem in that there was a high demand that could not be addressed.
As a department we are also in the process of investigating the feasibility of longer-term measures such as a comprehensive regional food security strategy, strategic grain reserves, and food stamps and improved information management systems in general.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the public service staff who worked tirelessly to first of all compile the comprehensive set of measures and then to implement the food relief measures.
STRIVING TO IMPROVE THE SOCIAL AND WORKING CONDITIONS IN THE SECTOR
Within the context of the Sector Strategy we have agreed to implement the vision of labour. My colleague - Minister Mdladlana has made great strides in the past few years to deal with the complex and distressing plight of farm-workers. This has culminated in the determination of a minimum wage. The agreement on these levels was reached through a process of extensive consultation with the farmer's groups and whilst it is true that there are some pockets of reluctance to move with implementation - there is no turning back. We as government will continue to work to improve the conditions of farm workers as part of our overall approach to improving productivity and prosperity in the sector. This year we will also turn our attention to the even more complex yet critical issues of occupational health and safety of workers in agriculture.
The Government through its Wine Industry Trust has been able to undertake programmes that impact on the lives of Farm workers. Included in some of these programmes is the "Women in Farm Project" in the Stellenbosch community focusing on educational programmes on substance abuse, HIV & Aids, and violence against women; The "Horizon Projects" in the Northern Cape town of Upington; and our ongoing joint initiatives with the Medical Research Council at the Wellington community looking in particular at nutrition challenges in communities surrounding the farms. We will continue with these programmes, because we believe that farm workers are an important work force in the agricultural industry that has to be supported.
AGRICULTURAL AGENCIES
The NAMC continues to do important work in monitoring the agricultural marketing environment in order to promote the existence of a more diverse and competitive sector. The Outreach Programme, which empowers emerging farmers with information recently reached 1400 emerging farmers and succeeded in imparting marketing skills to them.
Animal production also plays an important role in economic well-being and food security in South Africa. A strategic organisation like Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) is critical for the maintenance of the animal health systems that support continued improved performance of livestock. OBP is a sole producer of eight (8) vaccines in the world for tropical diseases. In the event of disease outbreaks OBP is able to timeously supply vaccines to reduce the impact of outbreaks. This year I am happy to report the successful contract OBP secured to supply blue tongue vaccines.
The institution is now positioned to produce even more vaccines for diseases relevant to the African continent. A vaccine bank is also being established to assist in rapid response to disease outbreaks in the country and region. The facility will be upgraded to an amount of R37MILLION during the coming financial year. Most of the funds (R27mill) for this upgrade have been generated internally.
The financing of agriculture has been a concern to us since the advent of our democracy. We continue to make strides in providing access to those who have not been able to gain access before through programmes initiated by the Land Bank.
The Land and Agricultural Development Bank Act of 2002 has been an important piece of legislation in that it deals with strategies to empower various farming communities, particularly the poorest of the poor. Today I am proud to mention some of the success stories that have been generated through the assistance of the Land Bank.
It is through the Land Bank's creative funding programmes and initiatives that women in rural areas have been able to empower themselves and take charge of their lives. Today we have women agricultural pioneers such as Mrs Elsie Matsunyane, a livestock farmer in Cradock, Mrs. Mbaba, an enthusiastic and enterprising farmer in the Lichtenburg district in the North West. We are pleased that they have been able to grace us with their presence.
In 2002 the Land Bank developed some unique products, one of which is the Step-Up loan, which is designed for people with little or no access to banking opportunities. To date the Bank has been able to assist a total of 14 000 black clients who are not beneficiaries of government supported programmes like LRAD, which shows that the Bank is increasingly reaching out to a client base that was traditionally not served by the country's financial institutions. A total of 7 900 LRAD beneficiaries have also received financial assistance through the Bank. In addition, the step up loan facility has assisted a total of 120 000 black clients.
I am committed to ensuring that the benefit from the technologies developed by the ARC reaches more and more communities especially those that have been historically marginalised. To increase to the baseline funding as provided to the ARC is meant to focus primarily on two areas. First, to stabilise the current core capacity through strategic and sustainable reward and recognition of ARC's scientists. Secondly to enhance training of young agricultural scientist whose numbers will create a gender and race balance within the ARC. The ARC is also playing its role by using its research impact positively and directly on food security, job creation, skills development, and competitiveness and poverty alleviation.
We have already recorded successes in various ARC sponsored programmes. These include in-field water harvesting techniques in the Thaba Nchu area in Free State. Improved livestock production in Limpopo, Bee- keeping projects in various locations throughout and many others. I will be continuing to engage with the Ministry of Finance and Science and Technology to increase investment in agriculture research and technology to at least 1% of agriculture's contribution to GDP.
Madam Speaker,
Honourable Members
Many of the new opportunities for the agricultural sector have been as a result of the maturing of our international relations and the development of new bilateral and multilateral agreements. Our primary focus is and always will be the SADC Region, and the African continent. As part of our contribution to the regional strategy to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease from Zimbabwe, government has made available FMD vaccines to the value of R12m as part of contribution to the disease management programme. The first consignment of 39 000 doses will be delivered by the ARC.
To further reduce the risks of trans-boundary diseases, increased vigilance is being exercised on all international disease control fences, especially those bordering on neighbouring countries that are infected with the FMD. To further strengthen our internal measures to combat animal diseases, I am pleased to announce an additional R5m for the development and rehabilitation of dipping infrastructure, which will ensure that there is adequate surveillance for tick-borne diseases especially in the communal areas.
HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT
Madam Speaker
In our efforts to develop the skills of our people and to realise the Human Development Strategy of Government so that it meets the needs of our people, I am proud to announce a new external bursary scheme will benefit a hundred beneficiaries in the 2004 academic year. The initial budget for 2004 is R5, 7 million. Beneficiaries will range from learners at high school to tertiary institutions focussing on veterinarians, agricultural engineers, economists, etc.
A Workplace Skills Plan for the Department has ensured that 300 employees have undergone generic training at a total cost of almost R130 000 last year. Training is still continuing.
The Department of Agriculture is also implementing a revised institutional framework for overseeing its work, which entails a sharper focus on the development of capacity in the least developed areas, a strengthening of the intergovernmental relations and a broadening of the pool of partners.
CONCLUSION
In our quest for security and stability, enduring peace and deepening democracy for Africa's people, especially Africa's women and Africa's children, we have gone and will go to extraordinary lengths to provide food to the hungry, land to the landless and empowerment to the disempowered.
The South African people's contract for a better tomorrow can only grow from strength to strength if we join hands in our efforts to push away the frontiers of poverty and underdevelopment in our country.
I thank you.
Issued by Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs
1 April 2003
Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs
Title: Didiza: Agriculture & Land Affairs Dept Budget Vote 2003/2004
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND LAND AFFAIRS, Ms THOKO DIDIZA, TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ON THE OCCASION OF THE BUDGET VOTE, Cape Town, April 1, 2003
Madame Speaker
Honourable Members
The package of fruits in front of you is not an April fool's joke - rather it is a token of appreciation from the agricultural sector to yourselves as members of the legislature and consumers of our goods. It is also a gentle reminder of the wealth of diversity in products from the land.
Madam speaker, a year ago we reported on the conclusion of a social compact between government and farmers organisations in support of agricultural development. We also ensured that our budget and the strategic plan as a department reflected the commitments we had made in the Agricultural Sector plan. It is our view that for this social compact to remain all the partners needs to mobilise relevant resources that will support it. The experience of the past year in moving from strategy to action with respect to the implementation of the Sector Strategy for Agriculture has taught us a range of critical lessons in the management of partnerships for development. These lessons will serve as the building blocks for enhancing agriculture's contribution to pushing back the frontiers of poverty and working for a better life for all.
At one level we have some wonderful stories to tell about how people individually and collectively have responded to the call to work together for a better life for all. Today in this Parliament we have Mr and Mrs Ludidi from eLukholweni village at Mt Frere in the Eastern Cape who felt that as citizens of South Africa they can contribute a little of what they have and plough back to the community that has brought them up, but also supported them as small business in that village. They chose to contribute to sustainable food security at local level by buying and donating two tractors to the village so that the community can plough the fields and provide food for themselves. They also built a school in order to ensure that the government's objective of improving the level of our human resource development is attained. Mr and Mrs Ludidi is like me and you. The challenge they pose to all of us is doing something for the communities that have brought us to be where we are today. To you Mama and Tata Ludidi siyabulela, siyazidla ngani njengabemi basemzansi Afrika. Inene nasebunzimeni soloku likho ithemba. You are a living example of what the President said in his state of the nation address last year that we all need to do something in order to push back the frontiers of poverty and development.
Thus we can say with confidence that indeed the tide has turned for the people of South Africa. The winds of progress have prevailed as a result of the partnership between government and people. We now move steadily to new shores of hope and prosperity, confident that we will reach our goals.
I stand here before you today during the Imbizo Focus Week. I started my day by visiting Nyanga and Khayelitsha urban gardens. These gardens have changed the lives of so many families and improved their food security status from what it was before. In these projects there are dedicated men and women who decided they will do something with their hands and the knowledge they have learnt from their forefathers or mothers to feed their children. They have been supported by a faith-based organisation, the Quaker Community, to start their small gardens. We want to thank Mr Jeremmy Routledge, a spouse to Comrade Nozizwe Madlala for his vision and passion of wanting to improve the lives of those who are vulnerable.
Today I also invited a number of people to Parliament as part of the Imbizo focus week to listen to what we have to say about those issues that impact on their livelihood on a daily basis. It is my wish that they will have an appreciation of how this parliament works to resolve their challenges, because it is through their mandate that we are public representatives. I would like to acknowledge the presence in this House of beneficiaries of our programmes in both Agriculture and Land Affairs Departments.
10 YEARS OF TRANSFORMATION OF THE SECTOR
Madam Speaker, honourable members, let us remind ourselves where we come from as this sector.
In 1994 we inherited an agricultural sector that was not inclusive at all and did not reflect the demography of our society. It was also highly regulated with subsidies and financial concessions available to commercial farmers, often at high costs to government. Protectionist policies and barriers to entry helped distort the potential of the agricultural sector.
Thus at the outset, we were faced with the enormous challenge of addressing poverty, landlessness and a general skewed participation of black people youth and women in the sector. Government's response has been to ensure that the right of access to sufficient food and water, to health care and social security is fundamental in the programmes we have implemented in our new democracy.
It is within the context of implementation that it became clear that government's role in terms of policy making and appropriate allocation of resources needs to be complemented by a commitment by the beneficiaries of government policy to partnership, which can result in innovation and the creation of job and income opportunities.
Madam Speaker, income received by farmers of agricultural products continues to increase year on year. Gross income from all agricultural products for the year 2002 increased by 29% to at least R68billion with field crops contributing 38%, animal products 37% and horticultural products 25%. This was as a result of marked increase in producer prices of almost all primary agricultural products, in particular that of maize, flower seed, sorghum, wool and vegetables. In addition production volumes of maize, grain sorghum and sunflower seed also increased. Another exciting development Madam Speaker is the increase in net farm income and cash flow of farmers, which is resulting in the improvement of the debt position of our farmers. Indications at this very hour are that this has resulted in a R2, 6 billion decreases in the farm debt.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SECTOR PLAN
Madam Speaker, the National Department of Agriculture (NDA), the National African Farmers Union (NAFU) and Agri-SA have established an institutional framework to oversee the process of implementing the sector plan.
Through this mechanism we have been able to stimulate the emergence of mentorship's intended to ensure that the beneficiaries of Land Reform and Agricultural Development make good use of their land. The challenge remains to make the practise of sharing of experience and expertise between black and white farmers becomes a norm rather than sporadic or an expression of good will of specific individuals. As a start a sum of R3.7 million has been transferred to the provinces as a training component of the comprehensive farmer support package. In the 2003 - 2004 year's budget we have allocated R10 million for this purpose and are working with the provinces and National Treasury to improve on the availability of government supported farmer support.
The Sector Plan challenges us to work for public private partnerships in the area of research and development. Our experience has shown that in order for us to succeed in building partnerships, we require a clearly articulated vision - which we now have for the sector. We also need to have an agreement on respective roles and responsibilities for each partner; and most importantly, to build Trust among partners - an area that needs more work, given that partners in the sector have different needs and expectations.
As government, we are committed to the implementation of actions to achieve the vision of a united and prosperous agricultural sector. To this end, we have ensured that our budget makes provision for the sector plan priorities.
Madam speaker, we are proud to announce that we already have partnerships in action arising out of our social compact. The National Agricultural Research Forum, a consultative forum where government, the public entities, the universities and technikons involved in agricultural research and technology development and transfer and the private sector, was launched in May last year. This forum enables the partners to share best practise and work for synergies in the optimisation of existing capacity.
Honourable members will recall that prior to 1994 the statistics on agriculture focussed on the white commercial sector and were not reliable for the ex-homeland areas and for black participation. I am pleased to announce that currently the Department of Agriculture is working with Statistics South Africa to conduct an agricultural census that should be a source of more reliable information on the sector. We expect to have preliminary results by December this year. This means for the first time we will have reliable data on the total agricultural sector and we have planned to update this census every five years. The Department funded the census to the tune of R17 million. We have in the mean time completed a survey on rural households which targeted five communal areas which gives us for the first time some useful information on communal rural agricultural. All this data will improve the quality of our planning and effectiveness of our targeting of government interventions.
FOOD SECURITY
Madam Speaker in order to respond comprehensively to the food security challenges, Cabinet approved the Integrated Food Security and Nutrition programme in July last year as one of the key programmes of the Social Cluster. My Ministry through the National Department of Agriculture has taken the lead in ensuring its implementation. The vision of the Integrated Food Security Strategy is to attain universal physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food by all South African at all times to meet their dietary and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Its goal is to eradicate hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity over 2015.
Food Security was of particular concern to us last year as food prices soared. The price of a staple food, maize, was pushed up by more than 120 % and as a result a large number of our rural people in particular became extremely vulnerable to poverty and hunger. In October last year, the Government decided on a number of short and medium term interventions to respond to the looming food crisis. These ranged from immediate relief measures for the poor to instruments of a medium to long-term nature that would help to improve food security and transparency in the food chain supply, as well as price stability.
As a short-term relief measure, Government reached an agreement with Premier Foods, AFGRI and Met-Cash for the introduction of a short-term targeted programme providing a 12,5 kg maize meal which we named Yiyo Lena to be sold at a subsidised price of R25, 99 per bag. Tiger Brands, Nedcor and "Gifts for Givers" also contributed by implementing similar targeted initiatives.
Government allocated a total of R400 million for emergency relief, of which R170 million was channelled to the Southern African Development Community through the World Food Programme and another R230 million for local food emergencies.
Madam Speaker, we have followed up on this by distributing food parcels through the Departments of Social Development nationally and provincially targeting the most vulnerable households in our society. We have further strengthened the linkages between these food parcels and the departments of agriculture's initiatives on food gardens by making available seed, fertiliser and information packs for the recipients of the emergency food. We recognise that whilst these initiatives have gone some way to provide short-term relief they need to be seen within the broader context of our comprehensive social security system and economic development in general.
As part of medium term measures in January this year, I appointed a seven-member Food Pricing Monitoring Committee to monitor the prices of a basket of basic food items and undertake a longer-term analysis of the link between food prices and the structure of the agricultural supply chain. The Committee will recommend specific actions for government to take in the case of identified uncompetitive behaviour within the supply chain. In addition, they are expected to ensure also that the benefits of lower prices as a result of our stronger Rand are filtered through to the consumer. I believe that through this form of monitoring and analysis, we are also trying to encourage and nurture a situation that is more predictable and sustainable for government and consumer alike and that would enable us to be more proactive in this regard.
Madam Speaker, honourable members on Friday last week the 28th of March 2003, the Ministry of Agriculture, Social Development and Health had a joint MinMec with almost all their MECs and representatives of Local Government in order to work at alignment and co-ordination of the implementation of this programme. Presentations from the various Provinces indicated that resources by these three departments have been put aside to address the problem. In each Province no less than R30 million Rands has been earmark. The national departments will also augment these allocations with resources available to them for the same programme.
Madam Speaker our own evaluation of the programme was that it did achieve its desired objective. We were able to target the most vulnerable in our society who were closest to the distribution points. The uptake was very quick. It did however reflect the enormity of the problem in that there was a high demand that could not be addressed.
As a department we are also in the process of investigating the feasibility of longer-term measures such as a comprehensive regional food security strategy, strategic grain reserves, and food stamps and improved information management systems in general.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the public service staff who worked tirelessly to first of all compile the comprehensive set of measures and then to implement the food relief measures.
STRIVING TO IMPROVE THE SOCIAL AND WORKING CONDITIONS IN THE SECTOR
Within the context of the Sector Strategy we have agreed to implement the vision of labour. My colleague - Minister Mdladlana has made great strides in the past few years to deal with the complex and distressing plight of farm-workers. This has culminated in the determination of a minimum wage. The agreement on these levels was reached through a process of extensive consultation with the farmer's groups and whilst it is true that there are some pockets of reluctance to move with implementation - there is no turning back. We as government will continue to work to improve the conditions of farm workers as part of our overall approach to improving productivity and prosperity in the sector. This year we will also turn our attention to the even more complex yet critical issues of occupational health and safety of workers in agriculture.
The Government through its Wine Industry Trust has been able to undertake programmes that impact on the lives of Farm workers. Included in some of these programmes is the "Women in Farm Project" in the Stellenbosch community focusing on educational programmes on substance abuse, HIV & Aids, and violence against women; The "Horizon Projects" in the Northern Cape town of Upington; and our ongoing joint initiatives with the Medical Research Council at the Wellington community looking in particular at nutrition challenges in communities surrounding the farms. We will continue with these programmes, because we believe that farm workers are an important work force in the agricultural industry that has to be supported.
AGRICULTURAL AGENCIES
The NAMC continues to do important work in monitoring the agricultural marketing environment in order to promote the existence of a more diverse and competitive sector. The Outreach Programme, which empowers emerging farmers with information recently reached 1400 emerging farmers and succeeded in imparting marketing skills to them.
Animal production also plays an important role in economic well-being and food security in South Africa. A strategic organisation like Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) is critical for the maintenance of the animal health systems that support continued improved performance of livestock. OBP is a sole producer of eight (8) vaccines in the world for tropical diseases. In the event of disease outbreaks OBP is able to timeously supply vaccines to reduce the impact of outbreaks. This year I am happy to report the successful contract OBP secured to supply blue tongue vaccines.
The institution is now positioned to produce even more vaccines for diseases relevant to the African continent. A vaccine bank is also being established to assist in rapid response to disease outbreaks in the country and region. The facility will be upgraded to an amount of R37MILLION during the coming financial year. Most of the funds (R27mill) for this upgrade have been generated internally.
The financing of agriculture has been a concern to us since the advent of our democracy. We continue to make strides in providing access to those who have not been able to gain access before through programmes initiated by the Land Bank.
The Land and Agricultural Development Bank Act of 2002 has been an important piece of legislation in that it deals with strategies to empower various farming communities, particularly the poorest of the poor. Today I am proud to mention some of the success stories that have been generated through the assistance of the Land Bank.
It is through the Land Bank's creative funding programmes and initiatives that women in rural areas have been able to empower themselves and take charge of their lives. Today we have women agricultural pioneers such as Mrs Elsie Matsunyane, a livestock farmer in Cradock, Mrs. Mbaba, an enthusiastic and enterprising farmer in the Lichtenburg district in the North West. We are pleased that they have been able to grace us with their presence.
In 2002 the Land Bank developed some unique products, one of which is the Step-Up loan, which is designed for people with little or no access to banking opportunities. To date the Bank has been able to assist a total of 14 000 black clients who are not beneficiaries of government supported programmes like LRAD, which shows that the Bank is increasingly reaching out to a client base that was traditionally not served by the country's financial institutions. A total of 7 900 LRAD beneficiaries have also received financial assistance through the Bank. In addition, the step up loan facility has assisted a total of 120 000 black clients.
I am committed to ensuring that the benefit from the technologies developed by the ARC reaches more and more communities especially those that have been historically marginalised. To increase to the baseline funding as provided to the ARC is meant to focus primarily on two areas. First, to stabilise the current core capacity through strategic and sustainable reward and recognition of ARC's scientists. Secondly to enhance training of young agricultural scientist whose numbers will create a gender and race balance within the ARC. The ARC is also playing its role by using its research impact positively and directly on food security, job creation, skills development, and competitiveness and poverty alleviation.
We have already recorded successes in various ARC sponsored programmes. These include in-field water harvesting techniques in the Thaba Nchu area in Free State. Improved livestock production in Limpopo, Bee- keeping projects in various locations throughout and many others. I will be continuing to engage with the Ministry of Finance and Science and Technology to increase investment in agriculture research and technology to at least 1% of agriculture's contribution to GDP.
Madam Speaker,
Honourable Members
Many of the new opportunities for the agricultural sector have been as a result of the maturing of our international relations and the development of new bilateral and multilateral agreements. Our primary focus is and always will be the SADC Region, and the African continent. As part of our contribution to the regional strategy to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease from Zimbabwe, government has made available FMD vaccines to the value of R12m as part of contribution to the disease management programme. The first consignment of 39 000 doses will be delivered by the ARC.
To further reduce the risks of trans-boundary diseases, increased vigilance is being exercised on all international disease control fences, especially those bordering on neighbouring countries that are infected with the FMD. To further strengthen our internal measures to combat animal diseases, I am pleased to announce an additional R5m for the development and rehabilitation of dipping infrastructure, which will ensure that there is adequate surveillance for tick-borne diseases especially in the communal areas.
HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT
Madam Speaker
In our efforts to develop the skills of our people and to realise the Human Development Strategy of Government so that it meets the needs of our people, I am proud to announce a new external bursary scheme will benefit a hundred beneficiaries in the 2004 academic year. The initial budget for 2004 is R5, 7 million. Beneficiaries will range from learners at high school to tertiary institutions focussing on veterinarians, agricultural engineers, economists, etc.
A Workplace Skills Plan for the Department has ensured that 300 employees have undergone generic training at a total cost of almost R130 000 last year. Training is still continuing.
The Department of Agriculture is also implementing a revised institutional framework for overseeing its work, which entails a sharper focus on the development of capacity in the least developed areas, a strengthening of the intergovernmental relations and a broadening of the pool of partners.
CONCLUSION
In our quest for security and stability, enduring peace and deepening democracy for Africa's people, especially Africa's women and Africa's children, we have gone and will go to extraordinary lengths to provide food to the hungry, land to the landless and empowerment to the disempowered.
The South African people's contract for a better tomorrow can only grow from strength to strength if we join hands in our efforts to push away the frontiers of poverty and underdevelopment in our country.
I thank you.
Issued by Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs
1 April 2003
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