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 The United States has granted the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) government $108-million in aid for development programmes, the head of the US Agency for International Development (USAid) has said in Kinshasa.
”USAid supports programs in health, democracy and governance, rural development, education and the reintegration of former soldiers,” USAid executive director Andrew Natsios told reporters late on Monday during a visit to the vast Central African country, struggling to emerge from five years of war.
”I am here with my delegation to assess the situation on the ground, emphasise the United States’s support for the transition and to see first-hand the $108-million in developmental and humanitarian programs here,” said Natsios.
”USAid is implementing democratic support programmes from Kinshasa to Kisangani, in Katanga and in the east of the country. In addition to humanitarian programmes, we support victims of rape and vulnerable children.
”These programs are primarily in the east of the country” where violence has continued despite the war having formally ended last year.
The DRC’s war raged from 1998 to 2003, claiming about 2,5-million lives either directly in combat or through disease and hunger.
”We are providing assistance to respond to the needs of displaced people and war-affected communities. We have contributed $30-million of food assistance this year, which feeds an estimated three million people,” said Natsios.
Rebel groups that fought Kinshasa during the war were transformed into political parties and brought into a transition government set up last year, when the war ended with President Joseph Kabila enacting a peace pact.
The interim administration is tasked with guiding the DRC to its first elections since those held on independence in 1960.
But despite the war being formally over, fighting has continued, especially in the east of the country, where hundreds have been killed in clashes between different armed groups.
Part of the USAid funds will be used to help disarm, demobilise and return to civilian life armed groups still active in the DRC.
”We recognise the importance of improved security. Without security, there will not be free and fair elections,” said Natsios.
Natsios met on Monday with Kabila and was due on Tuesday to travel to Bunia, the main town in the troubled northeastern Ituri region, where about 55 000 people have died in ethnic clashes since 1999, and then on to Bukavu, capital of eastern Sud-Kivu province, the scene of recent fighting between the army and a breakaway group of soldiers.
In both towns, Natsios said he and his team will review security and disarmament issues.
”In Bunia, we will review the Ituri situation with the district commissioner, Monuc [the United Nations mission in the DRC] and the NGOs. In Bukavu I will meet with the Monuc officials in charge of disarmament, demobilisation, repatriation, resettlement and reintegration and NGOs.
”This is an important step for security. Having a large number of unemployed men running around with guns is dangerous in any country around the world. The most important part of any programme is to create jobs for youth to keep them occupied so they do not get into trouble.”
The USAid chief also urged political players in the DRC to settle internal squabbles through the framework of the interim government, referring to a recent call by the head of a former rebel group, now in the government, to pull out of the transition administration.
”It is important that everyone in a leadership role refrains from any speech or act that may derail the transition … Any points of internal dispute need to be resolved within the framework of the transitional government,” he said. — Sapa-AFP