On Thursday, 24 October, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will launch Fetsa Tlala at the Batlharo Stadium at the John Taole Gaetsewe District in the Northern Cape. The State President, Mr Jacob Zuma and various other stakeholders will attend. The event will start at 07h00 and end at 16h00.
Minister Joemat-Pettersson says Fetsa Tlala aims to increase food production in communal areas as well as redistributed land. The aim is to improve household food security and stimulate sustainable job creation in the poorest districts of our country.
During September 2013, Cabinet passed the integrated food and nutrition security policy. The policy was the collaborative work of the Departments of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), and Social Development (DSD). The adoption of this policy followed the approval of the national Integrated Food Security Strategy (IFSS) whose aim was to streamline, harmonize and integrate the diverse food security programmes in 2002.
The National Policy on Food and Nutrition Security is an over-arching policy framework which provides a structure for the many initiatives around food security. It is underpinned by two programmes, namely, the Household Food and Nutrition Security Strategy, which is led by the DSD and the Fetsa Tlala Food Production Initiative which is under the leadership of the DAFF.
Fetsa Tlala will be financed through, amongst others, the Comprehensive Agriculture Support Programme (CASP). Allocations to provinces will be dedicated to food production, either crop or livestock production. More inclination, however, is towards the production of staple food such as maize, beans, wheat, sunflower, ground nuts and potatoes.
Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP) is the Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries’ premier support programme and is funded through the Division of Revenue Act (DORA). Through Fetsa Tlala, one million hectares of productive agricultural land which has been lying fallow is targeted for production over a period of 5 years. The funds will be used for land preparation, procurement of inputs, harvesting, storage of products, local processing as well as marketing.
Fetsa Tlala is in line with the National Development Plan’s vision statement, ‘we have food on the table’ and seeks to advance the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal to “halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.”
Media is invited.
Enquiries:
Palesa Mokomele
Spokesperson for the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Telephone: 012 319 7876 (PTA)
Fax: 012 319 6681 (PTA)
Telephone: 021 467 4502 (CPT)
Fax: 021 465 6550 (CPT)
Cell: 082 904 1908
E-mail: PalesaM@daff.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
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