The Northern Cape’s Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development will once again mark the province’s LandCare Week, 22-25 June 2009, by mobilising the farming community and broader society to assist in conserving natural resources such as the land and water. Departmental MEC Norman Shushu will deliver the LandCare Week’s keynote address at a workshop on 23 June at Kimberley’s Beaconfield suburb, The Palace, 22 Main Road, 09h00.
MEC Shushu will unveil 18 community-driven LandCare projects that will be aided to the tune of R5,6 million for this financial year 2009/2010. The Department’s LandCare allocation for 2009/10 pushed this programme’s total allocation since its inception in 1998 to nearly R36 million for over a hundred projects. The MEC is also set to call for increased LandCare activism in an effort to bolster responsible farming and sustainable rural development.
A wide range of agricultural stakeholders are expected to descend on Kimberley to participate in a workshop that will in the main let know around the theme; “Managing Agricultural Risks for Sustainable Rural Development.” Beneficiaries of LandCare projects, representatives of the provincial and national Departments of Agriculture, organised agriculture, and leading academics are set to attend.
Community driven projects that bear a mirror reflection of the LandCare philosophy are to be visited within the Frances Baard district. An awards gala dinner will also be staged to bestow honours on those community driven projects that have stood the LandCare test with aplomb. The LandCare programme has emerged as the department’s “breadbasket of honours,” raking in gold, silver and bronze in the coveted Premier’s Excellence Awards over the last few years. The Suid-Bokkeveld project was voted one of the world’s best LandCare projects at the International Landcare Conference held in Cape Town in 2004.
Enquiries:
Thabo Mothibi
Cell: 083 255 8840
Tel: 053 838 9135
