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Date
: 24/02/05
Source: Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment,
Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: Mosunkutu: Gauteng Media Briefing 2005
Statement by MEC of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment, Mr
Khabisi Mosunkutu
24 February 2005
It is a pleasure for me to be amongst you today and to further
expand on my Department's priorities for the year 2005 presented by
Premier Shilowa during the opening of the Gauteng Provincial
Legislature on the 21st of February 2005.
It indeed is an honour to stand here to report how we intend,
together with our communities, to utilise the state resources
allocated to us to further advance our people's aspirations to
combat poverty, create jobs and to contribute towards sustainable
economic development.
Comprehensive Household Food Security
Addressing the Legislature, Premier Shilowa briefly reported that
by the end of March this year, 6 500 had benefited from our
homestead food gardens project and that, through 80 new projects we
are targeting 9 000 beneficiaries. Indeed, we shall, upscale our
community food garden projects.
To fight poverty and help build sustainable communities through our
agricultural reforms and development programmes, we budgeted an
amount of R38.644 million for the 2005/2006 financial year.
From this budget and additional to the ongoing maintenance of the
117 established community food gardens, 32 more similar projects
will be established within the next 12 months. A total of R16.742 m
has been budgeted, for the 2005/2006 financial year for our
Comprehensive Household Food Security programme.
In relation to the commitment to fight poverty and create jobs
including through urban agriculture, I must acknowledge the
principle stance recently adopted by the Johannesburg Metropolitan
Council to support productive usage of commonage. We intend to
persuade other municipalities to adopt a similar position. With
this principle in place, the exciting concept of community food
gardens is likely to mushroom, reducing the levels of poverty in
its aftermath.
Agriculture
Not unrelated to the household food security projects, of the R4.85
m under the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme run by the
National Department of Agriculture, R2.6 m has already been
allocated towards agricultural infrastructure development and 145
farmers have already benefited from this allocation and the R25,000
interest free loan coordinated with the Land Bank.
In this specific programme, qualifying farmers are able to obtain
up to R10 000 for infrastructure development and this may be
complemented by the interest-free loans. A further amount of R6,310
m has also been set aside for the Provincial Farmer Settlement
Programme
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