The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development held a series of consultation workshops in a bid to unpack the department’s rural development strategy, where various stakeholders including organised farmers and business people took part.
The workshops aimed at unpacking the department’s new mandate of rural development were held in all the six district municipalities and the Metro during September while the portfolio committee on agriculture and rural development has also been engaged.
During the workshops, stakeholders expressed appreciation that the department was consulting them with their strategy and they commented on various issues including availability of funds for rural development, land and food security.
In explaining rural development, the document states that it is multi dimensional and much broader than poverty alleviation.
Rural development places emphasis on changing environment that enables poor people to earn more, invest in themselves and communities ,while there will be contribution towards maintenance of key infrastructure.
The rationale for rural development is to fight poverty and inequality, ensure food security while it should address community organisation and mobilisation, ensure access to natural resources and deal with issues of social development, ownership, employment and entrepreneurship.
The vision of the strategy is to eradicate poverty, enhance improved quality of life through community based development where rural communities will have quality physical, social and economic knowledge where land will become a viable asset in the hands of the rural people.
Rural communities should have access to information, communication and technology and there should be vibrant arts and cultural life. The strategy has three goals, which include transformation and development of rural areas in social, economic and ecological terms with the objectives of implementing the agrarian reform programmes, increase land reform rate, create decent jobs and fast track development of social and economic infrastructure. Another goal seeks to create an enabling institutional environment for rural development.
The strategy will ensure a community based planning and development where all three spheres of government, state agencies, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs, private sector and institutions of higher learning will be involved.
During the consultation workshops, stakeholders raised concerns about the land that is given to people who did not use it fully as well as farmers that were taken away from the people that cannot utilise it and the technical support given to farmers who had been given farms through land reform.
Stakeholders also complained that tenders, especially for infrastructure development should be fast tracked while departmental officials were urged to ensure monitoring and evaluation the departmental projects and programmes, including resources like tractors and implements.
While stakeholders appreciated the consultation workshops, the department was urged to consult stakeholders when they were planning and budgeting and this will be dealt with through the community based planning and development, which is one of the pillars of rural development.
There are also proposals that were being developed and will be incorporated into the strategy that include funding options, consultation strategy, alignment of government planning to the strategy and institutional arrangements to implement that strategy.
The media is invited during the following stakeholder consultations:
Date: 30 September 2009
Venue: Provincial consultation, Donhe Agricultural Development Institute
Time: 08h30
Date: 2 October 2009
Venue: Traditional leaders at Tsolo Agricultural College
Time: 08h30
All the inputs from stakeholders will be discussed at length at a management retreat to be held on 12 to 14 October 2009.
For more information contact:
Yvonne Matsheketwa
Cell: 076 868 7257
Issued by: Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
30 September 2009
