His Excellency The Executive Mayor of Chris Hani Mr Koyo Her Excellency The Executive Mayor of Lukhanji Mrs Makanda The Farmers
Stakeholders
Officials guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning
Molweni.
Almost twenty years since the advent of democracy, as the country commemorates 100 years since the promulgation of the 1913 Natives’, Land Act, a lot has been achieved towards reversing the very negative legacy. Under the current government of the ANC administration, the issue of rural development has been identified as one of the five priorities of government.
Since 2009, the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has adopted an agrarian transformation strategy that seeks to change the relations of land, livestock, cropping and community to ensure the creation of vibrant, sustainable, equitable rural communities. Various policy reforms have been introduced to upscale the service delivery in rural areas and change the land ownership patterns in the country.
One of the most recent programmes being introduced is:
The Animal and Veld Management Programme (normally called AVMP): Thus giving impetus to the reversing of the legacy of the 1913 Natives’ Land Act – Operation Mayibuye!
The 1913 Natives’ Land Act and related apartheid laws compelled the majority of black people to occupy 13% of the land, while minority of the country’s population i.e white people had access to 87% of the land. The congestion of the majority of the population on 13% of the land has had devastating impact on the farming aspirations of people in communal areas as a result of the challenges of over crowding, over grazing, and the resultant degradation of the environment.
Yintoni le AVMP
I Department inendlela yokuphuhlisa amaphandle née programs zayo ephangaleleyo ekuthiwa yi CRDP Comprehensive Rural Development Program. I AVMP yi plani nenxalenye yeenkqubo zokuphuhlisa imihlaba ngokuthi ilawule izilwanyana iphuhlise amadlelo.
Lenkqubo iyawuthi ke iphembelele ukubuyiswa kemihlaba ebanikazini bayo.
Ungatsho ukuthi ingu Gwebindlala, ngoba abantu basemaphandleni baza kusebenza, belungisa lemihlaba, ukuze imfuyo yande ingapheleli isifa ezindongeni.
The de-congestion of the majority of the population is at the heart of the Animal and Veld Management Programme (AVMP). The programme has been introduced by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform to give impetus to the reversing of the legacy of the 1913 Natives’ Land Act. The AVMP has three focus areas targeted at poverty eradication, soil degradation, unemployment and spatial congestion; namely: soil rehabilitation; re-greening the environment; job creation and spatial decongestion.
The Animal and Veld Management Programme (AVMP) is aimed at providing relief for farmers in the rural areas by tackling the challenges of overcrowding and overgrazing in grazing camps; bush encroachment; excessive littering which poses a risk to livestock; shortage of water for livestock; as well as soil erosion and donga build up.
As part of the programme, the department is targeting state farms that can be allocated to identified households that have been involved in cropping and livestock farming at a smaller scale and have shown the potential to move into medium and large scale operations. These are households who have demonstrated ability, commitment and passion for farming under trying conditions mostly on communal land.
A total of 25 households will be identified from each province, thus allowing them to expand their farming operations. The focus in this regard is on the 23 Priority District Municipalities identified by government. Chris Hani District Municipality is one of those districts.
Part of the support for these identified households include the sub- division of farms in promotion of smallholder farming, in line with applicable economic variables, climate and soil conditions, commodity, etc. The provision here is that no cropping land shall be more than 50ha in extent, and no livestock farm shall be more than 200ha.
Support will also be provided to those who remain on the communal land. As others are relocated to state farms, portions of land vacated will be demarcated and fenced-off to implement soil rehabilitation and re-greening projects, using mainly local labour and resources. The department will coordinate the provision of technical support in this regard, including the training of community members, especially the youth.
The work has already started in other provinces and the question is how far we are in this province?
At a recent national workshop attended by provinces and Municipalities, the programme was launched and Districts and Provinces were asked to profile households and develop business plans to fast track the roll out the programme in each Province and or district.
In the North West province, Mr Senne Phoku became one of the first beneficiaries of the AVMP to be relocated to a state farm near Zeerust. In Msinga in KwaZulu Natal (KZN), 27 young people from the local municipality were trained on rural disaster management and deployed to participate in the de-bushing and soil rehabilitation, of a portion of land measuring 602 hectares that have been earmarked for the AVMP . Msinga has been identified as one of the areas most affected by soil erosion.
The Department of Agriculture in the province is on board to provide support on conservation issues as part of the rehabilitation of the land in the area. Working together with other role players, the department intends to speed up the pace on delivery on the AVMP.
A coordinated approach
The department has adopted the Virtuous Cycle as tool for rallying support across different role players in order to ensure an integrated approach to the implementation of the AVMP. Internally, the contribution of the different programmes towards the AVMP is synchronized through the application of the Virtuous Cycle which displays all relevant stakeholders and structures that will ensure success and support of the AVMP Integrated Implementation Plan (IIP).
The Integrated Implementation Plan entails the identification of the 25Plas or state farms, identification of 25 profiled crop and livestock household farmers; subdivision into 50 hectares for cropping and 200 hectares for livestock farming; infrastructure provision and assistance with enterprise development and market access is very critical to the success of the programme, also the social mobilisation of community structures and other departments of government together with private sector are critical role players towards the implementation of the AVMP.
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) has identified about 3 million ha of land that is chronically degraded, and is currently championing the implementation of the Land Care programme across the country.
The AVMP complements the Land Care programme. At the same time it seeks to improve the opportunities, capacities and productivity of household farmers around the these degraded areas; makes state land in the vicinity of the degraded areas available to conduct livestock and crop farming; and support the relocation of these household farming communities to settle onto the state farms where they have an opportunity to improve their operations and sustain livelihoods.
In conclusion
The AVMP contributes towards the broader objective of reviving a class of black farming communities; food security; and improvement of the livelihoods of people living in our rural areas and creating jobs. Collectively, the programme offers us a great opportunity to combat the ills of the 1913 Natives Land Act i.e. poverty, unemployment and income inequality induced by landlessness more aggressively, effectively and with immediate and demonstrable impact.
These sessions and workshops offer an excellent opportunity for coordination across government spheres and the opportunity for integration and alignment that will enable us to better respond to the needs of rural people.
Together we can do more to create vibrant, equitable and sustainable rural communities!
I thank you.
