Speaking notes for Minister Senzeni Zokwana at the 6th Biennial LandCare Conference at Inkosi Chief Albert Lithuli International Convention Centre Ethekweni, KwaZulu-Natal
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, General Bheki Cele,
The Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Honourable Senzo Mchunu,
The MEC of Agriculture and Rural Development in Kwa-Zulu Natal, Honourable Cyril Xaba,
The Speaker of the Council, Councilor Logie Naidoo representing Executive Mayor of eThekweni Metropolitan Municipality Councilor James Nxumalo,
Director-General of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Professor Edith Vries,
The Acting Head of Department for Agriculture and Rural Development in Kwa-Zulu Natal, Ms Yasmin Bacus,
Representatives from the African LandCare Network,
Delegates from other Regions in the World,
Chief Executive Officer of the Agricultural Research Council, Dr Shadrack Moephuli,
Chief Executive Officer of AgriSETA, Mr Jerry Madiba,
Senior officials of Government,
Representatives of Private Sector Partners and Sponsors of the conference,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Sanibonani, Good morning
Compatriots, fellow South Africans and esteemed guests from other parts of our Continent, and honoured delegates from other regions of the world, we are gathered here today in our shared resolve to “transform agriculture for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods, through harnessing opportunities for inclusive growth and sustainable development”.
This Conference draws inspiration from the Declaration of 2014 as the “Year of Agriculture and Food Security” by the African Union. The Declaration gives us hope that we can position agriculture as a game changer for sustainable economic growth and development on our Continent. And to achieve this goal, we need to continuously mobilise ourselves and our stakeholders as we have done for this conference.
During the course of this conference participants will share lessons, best practices, technological advances, and policy feedback on LandCare. The conference also provides a platform to recognise farming communities, partners and land users who have distinguished themselves in advancing the LandCare approach to agricultural production and to the protection and rehabilitation of degraded agricultural natural resource.
It is my firm belief that we can use LandCare to achieve shared prosperity through agriculture. LandCare gives us hope that we can grow the agriculture sector and its contribution to the gross domestic product by broadening the scope for participation. LandCare has enabled us to transform our agricultural practices by shifting the paradigm towards a strong community-based and government-supported approach to farming. This collaborative partnership between communities, government and private sector has been instrumental in optimising agricultural production and enhancing sustainable use and management of agricultural natural resources, especially in communal areas.
The change in paradigm encourages local people to take local action to promote local economic development. It also ensures that causes of environmental and resource degradation are addressed. As a result, resource-poor farmers, mostly from the rural areas are empowered through various elements of the programme.
Farming communities have over the years progressively refined LandCare to address SoilCare, VeldCare, WaterCare, JuniorCare and Conservation Agriculture. These focus areas collectively enable South Africa to address the first pillar of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) on sustainable land and water resources management This is especially important because sustainable land management is the foundation of successful agricultural development.
While South Africa was the first African country to embrace LandCare, there is now a growing number of African countries that have integrated it as a model for collaborative partnership in agriculture. In this regard, I would like to encourage those who are actively participating in the African LandCare Network to continue to raise awareness about the importance of the programme in sustainable land and water resource management. This will in turn enable the growing contribution of agriculture to economic growth and development in Africa.
We have also been able to use the LandCare programme to meet our international reporting obligations to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and related frameworks.
Considering that climate change is ranked high among top risks by impact and likelihood combined, my Department is engaging stakeholders in the promotion of conservation agriculture and climate smart agriculture initiatives. We are excited that the climate smart agriculture initiative will feature prominently during the Climate Summit that will be hosted by the Secretary General of the United Nations in New York, exactly one-year from tomorrow on 23 of September 2014. I am confident that some of our own work as the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has contributed significantly to this programme of the Secretary General of the United Nations. Here I am making particular reference to the Third Global Conference on Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security and Climate Change, that was co-hosted by our entity, the Agricultural Research Council on 3 – 5 December 2013 in Johannesburg. That conference was instrumental in the consultative processes leading to the formation and establishment of the alliance on climate smart agriculture. The linkage with LandCare is that climate smart agriculture is an important aspect of conservation agriculture, which is one of the focus areas of LandCare.
The theme of this year’s LandCare conference is “restoring sustainable livelihoods for all”. It resonates with our Constitutional mandate on food security for all, as outlined in Section 27 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
Our struggle for freedom and an inclusive democracy in South Africa has always gone beyond political freedom. In this regard, our democratic dispensation enabled us to broaden this struggle to address challenges of high levels of land degradation that arose from the apartheid land tenure system that denied black farming communities access to land management support services from the state. This resulted in injudicious use of agricultural land.
As a result, the inappropriate farming systems led to degradation of vast tracts of agricultural land in communal areas of the former homeland states. Consequences of this injustice included, soil erosion, declining soil fertility, depletion of organic matter, destruction of soil health, bush encroachment, overgrazing, alien invasion, and declining water quality. All these forms of degradation have compromised the capacity of black rural communities to derive economic growth from the agriculture sector.
Our democratic dispensation paved way for inception of the LandCare programme in 1997. The programme contributes to our mandate on food and nutritional security by enhancing the sustainable use and management of agricultural natural resources. A further benefit is creation of job opportunities through a community based participatory approach and expanded public works programme.
LandCare is supported by a grant transferred to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries through the Division of Revenue Act (DORA). My Department in turn transfers allocated funds to Provinces that serve as implementing agents. In the past five years, 2009/10 to 2013/14, the LandCare programme has enabled rehabilitation of 212 948 hectares of agricultural land. This land was put into production, especially for livestock grazing. As a result, the programme enabled creation of a total of 62 187 job opportunities. For the current financial year of 2014/15, the LandCare Programme has been allocated a budget of R67.8 million.
Ladies and gentlemen, when we aggregate the collective impact of the Landcare programme, together with other land rehabilitation programmes in the country, including the working for water, working for forests, working for wetlands and working for fire, we have achieved a collective 2.6 million hectares of land rehabilitation over the past five years since 2009. These programmes confirm that together we can move South Africa forward, and contribute significantly towards employment creation in the natural resource management sector. This requires an institutionalised mechanism of providing support to farming communities.
South Africa has institutionalised provision of targeted support to smallholder and subsistence farmers through the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP) under my Department. In the past five years from 2009, my Department has provided a sum of R4.1 billion through CASP towards farmer support services. This enabled implementation of three thousand, three hundred ninety-nine (3 399) projects, including on-farm and off-farm infrastructure countrywide, reaching one hundred and sixteen thousand, and nine hundred and seventy-two (116 972) beneficiaries. It is important to indicate that fifty three thousand and three hundred and three (53 308) of these beneficiaries were smallholder farmers.
Notably, 40 percent of the beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme were female. Targeted training has also been provided to beneficiaries. Collectively, these initiatives created large numbers of jobs (24 047 jobs), of which a sizable proportion (10 231) were for females. Also, nine hundred and sixty (960) new extension officers were recruited country wide, and a large number (818) of these extension officers have registered with different institutions country wide to upgrade their qualifications.
Over the past few years South Africa has seen an increase in wild fires, severe droughts and flooding in different parts of the country, and most smallholder and subsistence farmers were severely affected. To this end, a National Fire Danger Rating System has been gazetted to reduce and mitigate of veld fire risk in the country. May I also add that without the support provided through Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme, farmers would have the least capacity to absorb and recover from climate related natural disasters.
The LandCare programme has proven to be especially beneficial for livestock farmers. In this regard, we draw parallels to the livestock improvement scheme called Kanonafatso ya Dikgomo or KYD in short. The programme enables emerging beef cattle farmers to adopt and apply the available beef recording and improvement technology to increase the productivity and profitability of their herds. Livestock farmers are also supported with fully equipped stand-alone mobile veterinary clinics for remote rural areas, to provide them with primary animal health care services. These facilities form part of the Compulsory Community Service for Veterinarians whose first cadre will be deployed throughout the country in January 2015.
We use the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act (CARA) as the principal legislative instrument to enable our work on LandCare. This legislation also provides a mechanism for establishment of community forums on LandCare. Going forward, my Department is taking bold steps to address the growing decline in high value cropping land. This challenge poses a major threat to food production and it cannot be allowed to continue unabated. To this end, we are in the process of developing policy and legislation to preserve and develop agricultural land more sustainably for the benefit of future generation Consultations are currently underway in this area of work, and we are hopeful that when we meet again in subsequent years we shall provide a more substantial progress report in this area of work.
Mismanagement of arable land and grazing is threatening South Africa’s natural resource base, as well as the national and household food security. Conservation agriculture is sustainable because it mitigates against climate change. For instance, those farmers who practice conservation agriculture can attest that when there are severe droughts they can conserve soil moisture through conservation agriculture. When there are severe storms, they are able to reduce their vulnerability to erosion through conservation agriculture. Furthermore, farmers have attested that they are able to increase yields, reduce input costs and achieve better competitiveness through conservation agriculture.
In conclusion my urgent task will be to conclude a range of policy interventions that I have alluded to in this address. This will create an enabling environment for all of us to move South Africa forward through agriculture. It is my firm belief that the South African experience and our story that I have shared with you in this address will resonate with deliberations and outcomes of the conference. I thank you for your attention.
