Issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs,
National Council of Provinces 11 April 2000
Chairperson
Honourable members;
In his address to Parliament last year, the President reconfirmed our commitment towards reconstruction and development of our society. A task which can be achieved when we all work together in partnership. He further acknowledged work done in the past five years remains as a foundation for our building blocks as we reconstruct and transform South Africa. One of the challenges therefore, we all face is to make better the quality of life of all South Africans - particularly for those who were disenfranchised by the pre 1994 government.
In executing our task we are always mindful that as South Africans, we do not move from the principle of working to level the playing field. Through this budget debate therefore, it is my hope that we will highlight those critical issues at the interface of national and provincial governance that need to be addressed through the allocation of budget resources to the benefit the entire South African nation. Today - we will debate the budget votes of both my departments and my first input will be on Agriculture.
The challenges for government in terms of developing South African Agriculture remain the need to deracialise the sector, promote and support economic growth and ensure that in our pursuit of these policies, we attain a better life for our people and continuously nurture our natural resources. This was well articulated by the African National Congress in 1994, when we ushered in our first democracy. Various initiatives to respond to the legacy of apartheid were put in place and now almost six years after we are beginning to see the results of those interventions.
One key initiative was the effort to broaden access to agricultural services particularly for those who did not have it before. As an outcome of that process we identified the constraints faced by previously disadvantaged farmers, prioritised their concerns and developed new instruments for information dissemination among farmers. Important in the context of the new South Africa, was the range of initiatives aimed at creating a culture of inclusivity in the industry.
We now no longer find it strange to find black people, young people and women taking an active role in the agricultural economy. At another level our changed approach to conservation of our natural resources has resulted in our people taking responsibility for caring for the soil, water and bio-diversity that we have.
Land Care Programme
The LandCare Programme thus remains a flagship programme for the Ministry for Agriculture and Land Affairs. The aim for this programme is to have communities and individuals adopt an ecologically sustainable approach to the management of South Africa's environment and natural resources, while improving their livelihoods.
This implies that cultivation, livestock grazing and harvesting of natural resources will be managed in such a manner that degradation (such as soil erosion, nutrient loss, loss of components of the vegetation of the vegetation, increased run off of water etc) is curtailed. The consequence of this will be the opportunity for smallholder farmers and resource constrained farmers to improve the quality of these natural resources and improve productivity per unit of land.
Through the implementation of this programme we have also developed synergies with other international partners and citizens. Of note is the relationship we have with the Australian government and people. We are continuously building up institutional capacity at the national and provincial levels to grow and sustain our Land Care programme. On the whole and taking into consideration where we come from - we have made remarkable progress.
Chairperson, this initiative confirms for all, the seriousness we view the role of agriculture in building a strong economy. The challenge is to work for increases in production and incomes at the farm level in order to provide the necessary stimulus for the development of the economy.
Defining the target group
One of the realities of South Africa, is that most black farmers whether small scale or not, have limited access to land and capital, and have received inadequate or inappropriate research, extension and marketing support. This has constrained their ability to grow and is a direct result of the legacy of apartheid and the history of land dispossession. This in turn has resulted in an undue reliance to a greater or lesser extent on subsistence production.
The truth of the matter is that black farmers are not exclusively small neither would it be correct to limit the definition of small-scale or subsistence to those who are black. Small-scale farmers in South Africa we know can be anyone - black and or white.
Given the South African experience of subjectivity linked to the use of the term small scale, we have resolved to deal with all farmers recognising that they operate on different farm sizes. What is of essence now is that small-scale enterprises can be commercially viable. What remains is to finalise the characterisation of small, medium and large scale farms using the combination of size of holding, and it's capacity to generate income.
Nonetheless - I wish to reiterate that the challenge facing us in this second democracy with regard to deracialisation of the sector is to ensure that we increase the participation of those who were previously disadvantaged. In order to achieve our government objectives of black empowerment and poverty eradication, policies will therefore, address problems faced by black farmers in general and resource - poor farmers in particular.
Seven Priorities for Agriculture
Driven by this basic objective, the political executive leadership in agriculture - namely the MECs, the Deputy Minister and I have thus identified seven priorities that we will implement in the next five years. I have already made reference to two of these - namely a farmer settlement and the Land Care Programmes.
A third priority we have set ourselves is the need to improve on the delivery of state supported services with a particular focus on the research development and technology transfer, financial services and the increasingly pivotal marketing information. This will be done largely through the existing parastatals, but there are clearly opportunities to develop partnerships with the farmers and private sector in order or to provide those support services.
Human resource development and capacity building in the form of farmer training, the development of institutions, improved extension services and easier access to finance will continue to be undertaken as a fourth area of attention.
Other priority areas where we as agricultural leadership in government will be paying attention is the development of policies and programmes on food security, infrastructure development. These will be pursued within the framework of an agricultural growth agenda as well in support of an integrated rural development strategy announced by the President in his address to Parliament.
Working with the provinces and other government departments
As a National Department and in order to consolidate these efforts, we will continuously work to strengthen co-ordination between national and provincial departments in this regard. Critical in this process will be bringing the planning and implementation within the restitution and redistribution process in the Department of Land affairs as well as financial support programmes of the Land Bank, the National Agricultural Marketing Council, and the ARC in alignment with national focus areas.
Furthermore, we will build on the existing co-operation arrangements that exist with other departments and provincial Departments of Agriculture and launch joint programmes in rural areas. Some examples of these are the initiatives of restructuring the irrigation schemes in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Linked to these initiatives is a re-thinking about how we as government can facilitate the development of production, and marketing infrastructure particularly in the ex-homeland areas.
I am currently engaged in discussions with the Minister of Public Works to identify concrete initiatives where public infrastructure is developed or rehabilitated with the deliberate objective of facilitating agricultural and rural economic development.
Contributing to rural development
The challenges of rural development are complex, and we have adopted a strong geographic focus in the strategy that we believe should go a long way in unlocking economic potential, supporting social development and creating synergy in government programmes.
For Agriculture our targeted intervention is in the form of the Special Programme for Food Security, which is designed to improve household food security of the resource poor, in both rural and peri-urban areas. The SPFS would, through a series of well-designed pilot activities, demonstrate that the rapid and significant increases in food production and household incomes could be achieved. It would identify additional constraints to increased food production and assist in developing a consolidated approach and investment programme to increase national agricultural production.
Facilitating economic growth
In direct response to the challenge to grow the economy - in October last year, we held an Agricultural Indaba with the aim to establishing an annual forum for dialogue between government, farmers, labour, to deliberate on those issues which are critical for the sustainable development of the sector.
There was general agreement that the overarching challenge facing us all was that in order to create a sector that is viable we need to improve the competitiveness of all sectors of the industry. The intention is to promote economic growth and to create more jobs, because failure to do so will result in the destruction of domestic industries by foreign competitors. We have since engaged with the stakeholders on the constraints to competitiveness, productivity and information dissemination.
It is now imperative that the country dedicates enough resources towards the gathering and proper analysis of statistics, the search for effective policies and development strategies, the commercialisation of the subsistence sector, as well as interaction with other countries to promote and protect our international trade interests.
Trade facilitation
Our enthusiasm to participate in the global markets is however, not without due regard to the inherent dangers presented by unfair domestic support, export subsidies, and denial of access to our products by developed countries. Our farmers should rest assured of our commitment to protect them from unfair international trading practices through intelligence gathering as well as institution of countervailing and anti-dumping measures.
I know that the Honourable Members will agree with me that growth must increasingly be based on the ability to export and compete on the world market in products. We will therefore, continue to engage the WTO, the EU and other trading partners to achieve this and will commence with efforts to increase the economic integration of the Southern African region. To beef up our capacity to transform the industry we will need to ensure our resources are allocated in order to ensure there is capacity for the promotion of domestic markets, management of agricultural statistics, the development of defensive trade measures and the promotion of international trade.
I also give the assurance that this will be done with the full appreciation of the fact that empowerment of the historically disadvantaged citizens has to be a continuous thrust of all economic programmes.
Conclusion
Finally it is important to stress that our objectives will only be achieved by a comprehensive well-designed package of policies. A long-term approach for agricultural transformation - requires a complete reorientation of skills and service delivery to farmers including the decentralisation of such services to the level of local governments and farmers' organisations. The market orientation becomes critical in this regard.
To be effective however, strategies to support farmer development have to be not only conceptually sound and noble; they also have to be properly capacitated. There is therefore a need to continuously reflect on and re-prioritise and co-ordinate the budgets and activities of the National Department of Agriculture, the Provincial Departments of Agriculture and Parastatals to give effect to this strategy. It is my hope therefore that at the very least you will vote in support of vote 3 and work with me and my team to contribute to a better life through agriculture.
Thank you