A total of R72-million is to be set aside in the budget for LandCare programmes in the coming financial year, a deputy director in the national Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs said on Tuesday.
The deputy director for production and resources, Njabulo Nduli, was speaking at Elsenburg outside Stellenbosch at the two-yearly LandCare national conference.
LandCare, now in its seventh year in South Africa, is an initiative that seeks to draw communities into programmes for the sustainable use of agricultural resources.
It was developed in Australia, and the Australian government has provided funding of R24-million since 2001 to build capacity in South Africa’s national agriculture department, to train LandCare practitioners and facilitators in the provinces and for information and educational materials.
According to the Australian High Commissioner to South Africa, Philip Green, although the three-year project has now come to an end, Australia will continue to fund ”modest activities” in the LandCare field.
He told the conference on Tuesday that for both countries, LandCare has been a vital part of the way agriculture and land use in general are taken forward.
By putting land management in the hands of communities, LandCare played a role in democratisation and empowerment.
”We’re proud of what LandCare has done in South Africa and would be delighted if it continued to contribute to transformation,” he said.
The director general of the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi, Dennis Garrity, told the conference that as per capita food production in Africa declined over the past three decades, the number of ”food insecure” people had doubled.
He said increased agricultural productivity needs community action in areas such as investment in the health of the soil, small-scale water management and seed distribution systems.
LandCare has so far been established strongly in five countries — Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, the United States and South Africa — and is being developed in others.
There is a need for capacity-building support for LandCare in developing countries.
Many people believe there is a need to develop a worldwide LandCare network and alliance to champion LandCare and raise its visibility.
The conference was also to have been addressed by Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs and patron of the LandCare movement Thoko Didiza, but according to Nduli she had other ”pressing demands”. — Sapa