Debate on budget vote 24 Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries delivered by Hon Deputy Minister General Bheki Cele (MP)
Chairperson of Portfolio Committee of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Hon M.R Semenya
Honorable Minister for DAFF, Mr S. Zokwana
Honorable Ministers present
Deputy Ministers present
Members of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Members of Parliament
MECs of Agriculture
Distinguished guests
Members of the Media
Ladies and gentlemen
Sanibonani, Dumelang, Good Afternoon
This is the year of our struggle stalwart Oliver Tambo who would be turning 100 years if he had lived. So it is indeed the good time to draw from the wisdom of this giant, who did not only become the liberator of South Africans but was a scientist, mathematician , teacher, barrister, and indeed natured by the small farming community of Bizana,
OR Tambo once said, I quote ‘centuries of colonial oppression have been ended for many millions and for many millions more the struggle of liberation is reaching new heights, we do not doubt that within our lifetime the millions still oppressed throughout the world will govern themselves freely’, unquote.
The emphasis of our oppression here is the world hunger, more in particular the starvation of South Africans. The world boast of enhanced science for food production, tons and tons of food produced by the world, especially by conglomerates and big agricultural industrialists. But how come that out of 7 billion people with all this tons and tons of food produced, 760 million people go to bed without food and 2 billion kids are underfed and that is why they are stunted.
The case is not better in South Africa, the figure varies but the scary trend of people going to bed without food in South Africa should be fought and defeated.
Figures given by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and other credible institutions show that 12 million people in 2012 in South Africa went to bed without food and that figure in 2016 has grown into a scary figure of 14,3 million people.
Maybe the answer of that is found in the writing of Professor Wadada Nabudere, where he explains, I quote, “under which life and plant forms genetically modified in this way could be patented as ‘private property’ and protected under the international legal regime.
Thus through this manipulative reductionist ‘science’ a few monopolies were able to establish a ‘legal’ and ‘moral’ basis for controlling not only the basis of livelihood and population reproduction, they had gone further to claim the right to reproduce or destroy real life forms and plants”. Unquote.
Furthermore, I quote, “the market for fertilisers high-yield seeds, pesticides, mechanisation, irrigation, credit systems and global marketing schemes, packaged by agribusiness monopolies had an objective of replacing small scale- farming with the new agribusiness enterprise”. Unquote.
This tells us a story that we need to go back to basics, we need to make sure that farming in SA is injected with young and new blood of South Africans.
At the present moment, the average age of farmers is 60 and those farmers are most probably white Afrikaner male. Therefore it will be appropriate for this department to embark on an aggressive programme to put black youth in particular Africans in this domain of agriculture.
Skills
To achieve this chairperson, since the inception of the External Bursary Scheme, 1 222 young people have benefited from a variety of bursary awards. Of this total, 652 successfully completed their tertiary qualifications and are currently contributing to the economy as part of the labour force in the country.
For the 2017 academic year, R20 million has been budgeted and 318 students are being funded to further their studies in various fields identified as scarce in the sectors. In total, R156.7 million (one hundred and fifty six point seven million rand) has been spent since the inception of the scheme.
In line with the National Youth Policy 2020, the department has developed the Young Producers and Entrepreneurs Strategy (YPES). The strategy aims to support the establishment of youth owned and/or managed enterprises.
Through the strategy the department is supporting 261 unemployed youth through various programmes. Of the 261 unemployed graduates, 183 are currently placed in various units within the department to gain work experience and experiential training to make them ready for the job market.
Twenty five are placed with the Perishable Products Export Control Board (PPECB) as Export Technologists and 53 are placed at identified Agricultural Policy Action Plan (APAP) farms across the country.
This increases our capacity as a country for export readiness. Fifty three graduates are deployed to various private commodity farms to be groomed as Young Entrepreneurs. In addition to this, young farmers will be trained as part of the 18 000 smallholder farmers in the Capacity Building Programme of the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme that is implemented in the provinces.
#Youth in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Awards (#YAFF Awards)
Despite the notable progress that has been made in attracting youth to take advantage of opportunities offered by the sector, there is still an earnest shortage of young entrepreneurs or producers with the potential to replace the aging farmers.
The Youth in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (#YAFF) Awards is one of the delivery mechanisms of the Young Producers and Entrepreneurs Strategy. It is implemented in conjunction with existing departmental programmes aimed at supporting youth owned and managed enterprises.
The awards recognise top achievers involved in activities along the value chain of the key components; namely livestock and poultry production, crop production, fisheries/aquaculture production, forestry and agro-processing.
The programme was launched in June 2016 in Tshwane, Gauteng, under the name #Agristars Awards. The newly adopted name which is inclusive of all three sub-sectors is #Youth in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Awards (#YAFF Awards). The awards ceremony is an annual celebration staged during the month of June as the premier youth engagement in commemoration of the youth month.
The 2017 awards will be held on 23 June in the Gauteng Province.
This has become a flagship programme alongside the DAFF Female Entrepreneur Awards. We are inviting the private sector partners to claim their space in the youth awards and take active participation in Sponsorship just as Total SA has been a consistent partner in the DAFF Female farmer of the year and Arbor Week.
Furthermore, we need to make sure that small scale farmers are multiplied and protected, they must be protected from being consumed by the big Agri business enterprises and be encouraged to produce the food to feed those alarmingly increasing number of people going to bed without food.
For that to happen government will have to make better in terms of financially assisting these farmers, not only for consuming but to be allowed to grow and be part of national and world players in the food production.
Forestry
As we know that the department has the forestry branch, which is one of the biggest industries of the world and moreover bringing a lot of money in the respective countries. South Africa will have to grow too, and again the growth here will have to be targeted and systematic, the young african population, especially women will have to be assisted to find their way to this branch of economy.
It is for that reason that the department is working hard to plant many trees as part of million trees a year project, working with the communities and households, improving the focus in the natural trees and the fruit trees, as an effort to reverse the scourge of starvation.
We are pushing hard to commercially plant 100 hectares of trees and also we will invite and encourage young people to be part of that process, but also invite our sister departments like DTI to open opportunities for young people to be the part of this massive agro processing in this industry.
Also we recognise, the long period of wait in this industry, it is on that score that we are increasing the opportunities of agro forestry so that young new entrants don’t wait for too long before they can benefit.
Let us make a clarion call as government to financial institutions and independent banks to be part of the revolution as we try to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries a South African phenomenon rather than a racial section as it stands at the present moment.
At this juncture, I would like to invite the honorable member Mr. Maimane to go with me to the west coast to see how DA members, who are farmers, are brutally squeezing the black farmers who are trying hard to survive under the hostile environment.
All agricultural assistance is given to white farmers only, they don’t provide any assistance to black farmers because they are black, maybe honorable Maimane we can all call that the product of apartheid and colonialism.
Finally if we work together, this kind of economic scourge will also be conquered as we conquered the political oppression before.
I thank you.
