initiatives
17 August 2006
Mr Matsepe Matlala, President of the National African Farmers Union (NAFU),
says Mpumalanga is one of South Africaâs provinces with diverse agricultural
opportunities and poised for further growth through the bio-fuel development
strategy. Matlala said these words following a meeting NAFU held with
Mpumalanga Premier Thabang Makwetla at the provincial government offices in
Nelspruit yesterday.
NAFU South Africa is a national organisation whose mission is to increase
the meaningful participation of black farmers in the mainstreams of the
country. NAFU SA in partnership with other broad-based organisations has formed
a consortium that is now driving a programme aimed at empowering the
small-scale farmers to ensure that they play a meaningful role in the emerging
bio-fuels industry within our country. The programme is known as the National
Organic Produce Initiative (NOPI).
The NOPI is designed to mobilise and rally all constituents of the
agricultural, environmental and socio-economical beneficiations value chain
around co-operative and integrated empowerment formula which is built on
Private Public Partnership, good agricultural practice (GAP) and identification
of responsible and dutiful leadership in communities.
Mpumalanga has been identified as one of the provinces that will play an
important role in the energy initiative and the commodity development project
of NAFU SA because of its key field crops that readily fit into the bio fuels
cluster of commodities. In the meeting, NAFU committed to partner with
Mpumalanga in its development endeavours through these two initiatives and
further support the provincial governmentâs Masibuyele Emasimini campaign.
Mr Matlala says the provincial flagship programme; called Masibuyele
Emasimini has made strides in addressing concerns of food security at household
level.
Masibuyele Emasimini is the provincial government initiative that supports
rural households to till and plough their backyard gardens for both subsistence
and commercial farming opportunities. The provincial government provides
targeted communities with implementation seeds, small community owned tractors
and support material with the aim of stimulating family based tilling of the
land to address food security and explore possibilities for future commercial
activity.
âThis programme continues to address the plight of the many poor families
and as NAFU we are prepared to help government capacitate these families to
grow from subsistence to commercial farmers. The Mpumalanga Agricultural
strategy will also help us to promote our commodities and expand the export
capacity of Mpumalanga farmers in areas like citrus, horticulture and poultry,â
said Matlala
Mpumalanga Premier Thabang Makwetla said his province will double the number
of beneficiaries of this programme.
âTilling of the land is one avenue of addressing the pressing socio-economic
needs and we will therefore plan to double our spending on Masibuyele
Emasiminiâ said, the Premier.
Makwetla added that Mpumalanga will further explore the promotion of
bio-fuel strategy, because as one of AsgiSA interventions, it offers
enterprising opportunities that Mpumalanga will vigorously pursue.
âOur strength is the agricultural climate and availability of arable land
and we have to use that to benefit the agri-industry throughout its value steps
and expand opportunities for small farmers through the provision of integrated
and streamlined government support in areas of research for finance, skills and
technology.
The two parties also agreed on the need for further research on how
Mpumalanga can benefit from bio-fuel development and the creation of local
level one stop agricultural support centres throughout all municipalities in
the province.
According to Makwetla the local one stop centres must stimulate the
councillorâs enthusiasm to appreciate agricultural opportunities as key to
local economic development because all municipalities in Mpumalanga have
agriculture as part of their local economic activities.
The provincial agricultural sector contributes 6,1% to the Gross Geographic
Product (GGP) and it accounts for 18% of the total provincial workforce.
Enquiries:
Ntime Skhosana
Tel: (013) 766 2055
Cell: 084 673 0415
Issued by: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
17 August 2006
