Minister Gugile Nkwinti: Rural Development and Land Reform Dept Budget Vote 2016/17

Introduction

The National Development Plan (NDP) views agriculture as critical to employment and food security. It is estimated that agriculture would potentially create a million jobs by 2030. Vision 2030 of the NDP calls for an inclusive rural economy wherein: rural communities should have greater opportunities to participate fully in the economic, social and political life of the country. People should have access to high-quality basic services that enable them to be well nourished, healthy and increasingly skilled. Rural economies will be supported by agriculture, and where possible by mining, tourism, agro-processing achieved through successful land reform, job creation and poverty alleviation.

The 2030 vision speaks of the inclusivity and integration of rural areas, through successful land reform, job creation and poverty alleviation, and places agriculture as the driving force behind this vision.

The NDP identifies the following as key catalytic interventions: expansion of irrigated agriculture, supplemented by dry-land production, where feasible. In areas of low economic potential, the NDP speaks of the importance of basic services such as basic education, health care and social security to support the development of human capital.

Agri-Parks will serve as important mechanisms to execute the NDP’s proposed rural development strategy due to their potential for supporting small-scale agricultural production and stimulating agro-processing in rural areas. One core element of this approach is conducting commodity and value-chain analyses and mapping exercises to establish Agri-Parks based on the growth potential of value-adding commodities. As such, each Agri-Park will focus on specific prioritised commodities that have the highest prospect of succeeding in their region. This is directly in line with the NDP’s approach of targeting high value commodities (most of which are labour intensive) to stimulate industrial growth, accompanied by measures that ensure sustainable production on redistributed land and an improved institutional support system.

In this regard, the NDP identifies certain agricultural sub-sectors that have the most potential for development, which are categorised into large labour-intensive industries, smaller labour-intensive industries, and large existing industries with significant value-chain linkages. For instance, small-scale labour intensive agriculture, including macadamia, pecan nut, rooibos tea, olive, fig, cherry and berry industries, are found to have the greatest expansion potential due to the significant market demand for these products. The NDP projects that approximately 80 000 jobs can be created by further developing these particular areas of small-scale agriculture. By providing the necessary inputs, facilities, institutions, market-linkages and partnerships, Agri-Parks can enable producers and rural residents to create new and expand existing enterprises in these industries, which will have positive growth impacts on the rural economy.

Agri-Parks have been identified as one of the key drivers in revitalising the agriculture and agro-processing value chain. During the course of last year, the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (the Department) started planning and coordinating the implementation of this programme in all 44 Districts of the country.

This is in line with the pronouncements of his Excellency, President J G Zuma, during his State of the Nation Address, 2015, when he pronounced on the Nine Point Plan to ignite growth and create jobs. One of these catalysts, was identified as the revitalisation of agriculture and the agro-processing value chain.

In this regard, the President stated that “Agriculture is a catalyst for growth and food security. We are working with the private sector to develop an Agricultural Policy Action Plan (APAP) which will bring one million hectares of underutilised land into full production over the next three years. Among key interventions this year, we will promote the establishment agri-parks or co-operatives and clusters in each of the 27 poorest district municipalities to transform rural economies. An initial funding of R2 billion has been made available for the agri-park initiative”.

All 44 district municipalities have since been included in this programme.

Full Speech

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