Mr Speaker, the ANC is committed to creating an environment that ensures that there is adequate food available, that we grow our own food and protect the poor communities from the rising food prices, and that we eradicate hunger.
Therefore, the ANC welcomes the initiative by the Mpumalanga department of agriculture, rural development and land administration to call on more people to grow vegetables in unused open fields, especially at rural schools. Through this project, which was initiated in 2000, more than 200 schools have already managed to establish vegetable gardens, whose produce is either sold to their local communities or used in the feeding scheme for the poor pupils.
The ANC supports these programmes as they add value to the ANC's clarion call to expand access to food production schemes in rural and peri-urban areas so as to enable rural people to grow their own food. I thank you. [Applause.]