Programme director
Head of the department
LandCare practitioners
Participants
Government officials
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It is an honour for me to address this august gathering of the 2009 Northern Cape LandCare Awareness Week held here in the Frances Baard district.
This Awareness Week on LandCare is indeed appropriate and is held at a period when various role players and stakeholders in the world at large are asking and preparing themselves on various mitigating strategies to deal with the impact of global climatic change.
This is indeed a time for us to reflect and ask whether we well positioned to deal with an increased drought spectre and other challenging environmental issues.
Members of the farming community and fellow LandCare practitioners,
Ours is to be on the alert and respond to the best of our abilities as we seek to retain our agricultural heritage. An agricultural heritage build on a skill to increase our agricultural production without harming our natural environment is indeed what we ought to advance. Effective environmental protection requires overall social planning that includes the ability to set limits on the production of certain items. It may be necessary to subordinate certain investment decisions to social needs in the broader interest of society if we are indeed to create a sustainable society.
We are aware that natural resources in our country are diminishing while they are critical to the survival of various sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing. In his recent State of the Nation address, the honourable President J G Zuma highlighted on various key priorities for the government and one of them being “Sustainable natural management and use.”
We have to ensure that while we benefit from the natural resources, we conserve and ensure that the future generation will still have access to adequate resources for their own benefit. We are therefore all of us as various stakeholders, obliged to use the resources sustainable and conserve for the future use.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The agricultural sector is among the main users and benefactors of the natural resources. While we have various legislation (such as Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act) to provide guidance to the approach on assisting and compelling farmers to conserve natural resources, we also have a constitutional mandate to empower especially our rural emerging farmers and communities at large.
We ought to ensure that all our farmers are part of a green revolution based on conservation agriculture evolution. Much attention also ought to be given to communal land administered by our various municipalities.
Through a continuous awareness programme, we will ensure that agricultural natural resources are optimised and there is good farming practices for food security and a better life for all.
Together, we need to develop early warning systems and policies appropriate to the area to deal with natural disasters such as floods droughts, diseases outbreaks and others.
We also need to develop mitigating measures and the best practices to adopt in order to adapt to the changing environment.
The risks associated with agriculture can never be the blight on one of Africa’s best sciences, a science upon a family, society, community, a nation and global village survival depends upon.
Fellow LandCare practitioners,
LandCare should therefore not be viewed in isolation but should be viewed as part of a holistic government initiative together with other related interventions to promote sustainable management and use of natural resources.
When the LandCare programme was initially conceptualised in South Africa in 1998, with the assistance of the Australian government, the main aim was to:
- encourage and support sustainable land use practices and
- raise awareness to develop a resource conservation ethic.
Landcare programme is therefore a community based approach to address environmental issues and protect the future of our natural resources.
Since its conceptualization in 1998, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development has implemented 120 LandCare projects, with a total investment of R35 million. The initial assistance included construction of all infrastructure development needs, which included all on and off farm infrastructure needs.
However, the focus has now changed towards concentrating on awareness, capacity building, training of land users and soil conservation structures.
Programme director,
At this stage, allow me to congratulate and thank all farmers and organisations that participated in the past and are still willing to partner government on this great initiative.
During the 2009/10 financial year, we will through the LandCare programme focus on the following:
- Bush eradication of invader plants mainly in the John Taolo Gaetsewe district to enhance the carrying capacity of the natural resource. This will subsequently improve on the production aspects and off take from the farms.
- Building of small soil conservation structures to counter soil erosion and protect our natural agricultural resources. The beneficiaries of the Bristow Emerging Farmers will construct these small structures themselves as part of phase two of Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) (creating decent jobs and building capacity in the area).
- Implementation of an awareness programme regarding sustainable resource use through information days and LandCare Week events.
- Specific Junior LandCare programmers that will involve exposing the youth to the LandCare principles and hands on experiences to stimulate participation in the LandCare Programme. Scholars (learners) will be visiting various venues where they will be taught the names and values of different plants and animals, how and why they should be protected etc. Furthermore, soil conservation and other related issues will also be discussed with practical demonstrations on site.
Distinguished guest, ladies and gentlemen,
The opportunity is there for our communities to use and I would urge us all to continue spreading the message of LandCare and advice people on how to participate. The department has developed a brochure on the LandCare programme and it provides information on:
- how farmers could participate
- who to be contacted
- what is required to participate and,
- the process to be followed to approve the projects.
We will also through the Directorate of Strategic Communications continue to use a range of media in imparting the LandCare philosophy.
In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen,
I am made aware that various relevant topics will be covered during the next three days including visits to projects to practically learn and identifying shortfalls in the projects. I therefore want to impress on you to effectively use the opportunity to learn, ask questions and share information as much as possible and once you return to your respective faming areas, share the information with the others who could not attend this gathering.
I am also made aware that some of you here today will during the course of the week, receive awards for the best practices of LandCare. To the winners, well done and keep it up, while to those that will not receive the awards, let us learn from the others and continue participating in the efforts to practice sustainable management and use of our natural resources.
Lastly I wish you all a prosperous LandCare week and we must allow vigorous and positive inputs and debates.
I thank you
