Congress Mahlangu
Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza has launched a R37-million agricultural development scheme to benefit small and emerging black farmers as well as agricultural communal projects all aimed at alleviating poverty in rural communities.
Didiza made the announcement when she transferred 241 title deeds to emergent farmers in Nkomazi, Mpumalanga, two weeks ago. This group of farm labourers-turned-emergent farmers were each allocated 7ha plots to cultivate into sugar plantations.
The Nkomazi project is one of the several pilot projects that is spread around the rural areas, that would see the transfer of 30% of agricultural land over 15 years.
Didiza said the Nkomazi project would see the increased empowerment of rural women in poverty-alleviation projects. Part of the budget for the scheme has been allocated for infrastructure such as clearing bushes, water-pump construction, laying pipes and irrigation.
The second aspect of the programme is directed at stimulating communal projects by increasing access to municipal and tribal land for agricultural purposes. Targeted projects include food safety-net projects and the production of fresh produce for local markets serving the communities.
The small- and emerging-farmer project consists of grants in which applicants put up cash to match the grants. Grants vary between R10 000 and R100 000. This grant system has the backing of the Land Bank, the Agricultural Research Council, the National African Farmers’ Union and the National Land Committee to provide assistance in terms of business plans, research, marketing and exports.
Kevin Pillay, facilitator for the Nkomazi project, says a substantial amount of sub-contracting has already been awarded to black empowerment companies in the region, and implementation of the project is well under way.
“The Department of Land Affairs through its partners will provide some basic training for successful applicants so that they are able to sustain their farming.”
The scheme has been welcomed by the Mpumalanga branch of the African Farmers’ Union.
Petros Khombisa, a union member, says the project has come as a great relief to many small farmers in the area, and commended it for providing farming and management skills to beneficiaries.
“How do you pump money to an emerging farmer who has no previous exposure to management, who can’t draw a business plan, for example, to run a successful farm?
“The government’s pledge to provide intensive management skills bodes well for many of us if we are to manage our farms in a modernised fashion.”
Khombisa says the success of the project would be judged on the number of large-scale commercial farmers it would produce from the emerging farmers.
ENDS