Committee on Agriculture welcomes the recognition of the potential of Agriculture for economic growth by the President in his State of the Nation Address
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land and Rural Development, Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela said the committee welcomes the State of the Nation Address (SONA) by President Cyril Ramaphosa and applauds the acknowledgement he highlighted in the speech that agriculture is one of the sectors of the economy with the greatest potential for growth.
Nkosi Mandela said: “However, our irreversible path to freedom stands compromised if we fail to leverage the capacity and capability to unlock such a potential. This impacts on our ability to eradicate poverty, provide food security and expand the size of our output on agriculture which, despite its enormous potential, only stands at 5% of GDP.”
“It is absolutely vital that the key recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture are implemented without further delay and, in this respect, the three most critical areas of focus are to accelerate land redistribution, expand agricultural production and transform the industry,” he added.
He said: “We waited for nearly 50 years to uncover the final resting places for our comrades and heroes of the Wankie Campaign. We do not have that latitude in respect of the pressing land question and the reality of land hunger.”
On that, Nkosi Mandela said: “We must ensure through our role of oversight, law making and consultation results in the completion of the parliamentary process to amend Section 25 of the Constitution. The amendment must clarify the circumstances under which expropriation of land without compensation would be permissible. We delay this at our own peril, and at the cost of economic loss, social pressure and growing unrest.”
As the committee, Nkosi Mandela said they are pleased by the release of the 44,000 hectares of state land for the settlement of the land restitution claims to date, and that the state will this year release around 700,000 hectares of land for agricultural production. “Whilst this is commendable we must put it into context of the huge demand and massive backlog of restitution claims as well as the pressing need to grow agricultural production, provide employment and ensure greater ability in agricultural estate management.”
According to Nkosi Mandela, “one of the sad realities of the past 25 years is our inability to effectively eradicate the skewed development planning paradigm bequeathed to us by apartheid. Our inequality levels are starkly pronounced between rural and urban and many youth, women, people with disabilities and those who have been farming on communal land are unable to access the support of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development”.
“We must work with all the stakeholders to ensure that we are fair and just in our approach, but we must ensure that we spare no effort in securing our own capability to expand operations for training and allocation of land. This is the kind of social compact that the President has called upon the country to embark upon.”
Furthermore, Nkosi Mandela said: “We must urgently address the heinous practice of allowing public land acquired for purposes of agricultural extension to return to the hands of the sellers. This severely undermines all our efforts at consolidating gains in this respect. A new beneficiary selection and land allocation policy includes compulsory training for potential beneficiaries before land can be allocated to them, this is welcomed in dealing with the challenges related to land redistribution.”
On the recent draught that severely struck certain parts of the country, Nkosi Mandela said farmers lost crops and livestock and many workers have lost their livelihoods, and that has negatively affected “our agricultural production”. “This situation is untenable and we must look at ways of alleviating the drought and addressing the dire plight of those who have lost their jobs, livelihoods honour and dignity”.
Nkosi Mandela said the issuing of water licenses to farmers will help most of the vulnerable and emerging smallholder farmers whose production has been severely affected by the shortage and lack of access to water supply. “We hope that in transforming the agricultural sector, issuing of water licenses will prioritise our smallholder commercial farmers,” he stressed.
“We commend the department, the Agricultural Research Council and other agricultural organisations for developing effective drought mitigation strategies that focus on developing drought resistant seeds, planting and storing fodder, removing of invasive plants as well as management strategies to prevent soil degradation. We are convinced that investment in agricultural research will increase our competitiveness, innovation and productivity in agriculture globally.” Emphasised Nkosi Mandela.
He said, despite global trends in hemp production, South Africa lags far behind in the beneficiation of the commercial use of hemp products, providing opportunities for small-scale farmers; and formulation of policy on the use of cannabis products for medicinal purposes, to build and grow the economic viability of this industry. “We must apply best efforts to unlock the potential of this important initiative and to ensure that we leverage it to expand the agricultural product diversification and the potential of our agricultural economy to radically grow its share of GDP.”
“Most welcomed, is access to markets and the opportunities that the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement will afford our local agricultural producers in increasing our agricultural export market share. Equally most welcomed, is the progress made in terms of the development of the Sector Master Plans for poultry and sugar industry,” he added.
“The Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development supports the spirit and ethos of the State of the Nation Address and looks forward to working together with all the stakeholders regarding the implementation and building capacity. We are especially keen to ensure that we grow the contribution of agriculture towards GDP,” said Nkosi Mandela.
Enquiries:
Sureshinee Govender
Tel: 021 403 2289
Cell: 081 704 1109
E-mail: sugovender@parliament.gov.za
