Deputy Chair, hon members, our moral duty to address the historical injustice of land dispossession remains one of the critical imperatives to transform our society and forge a united and cohesive country. Through our land reform programme, we are taking a responsible and measured path of restoration, redress and dignity for all who should share in the wealth of this beautiful land of ours.
Addressing the challenges of skewed land ownership through equitable access to land is not only an act of justice, but a social imperative to broaden economic inclusion and participation. Land is a productive asset that supports development, social upliftment and sustainable livelihoods. When land is restored to its rightful owners, we have an obligation to ensure that every piece of restituted land remains productive, and accrues economic value to those who own it and to the whole country.
Land must continue to contribute to the broader economic and developmental goals of our country. For this to happen, we must ensure that our post- settlement support programmes to beneficiaries of land reform are effective to ensure that restituted land is utilised optimally. Therefore, the government land reform programme
must be implemented in a way that land access is complemented by the necessary support for it to be suitable for use by different beneficiaries given the land use planning that is consistent with their needs.
With respect to agriculture, support services are critical for any farmer development interventions. These support interventions range from extension services, research and technology transfer, mechanisation, production inputs, finance and market access.
Government, through its agricultural departments nationally and provincially, offer extension services, production inputs for subsistence and small holder farmers, technology transfer, assistance in finance, mechanisation and market access. More importantly, the provision of production infrastructure such as dams and irrigation infrastructure is essential to achieve higher levels of production by these smaller farmers. ILima/Letsema is largely for support of vulnerable and subsistence farmers in order to address food security.
Mechanisation support through creation of service centres has been budgeted for, where farmers at local level can have access to tractors and other implements that will support them to be
productive. In some provinces, service centres are already in operation. These will be streamlined with farmer production support units which are part of the broader integrated producer support system. Financial support to land reform beneficiaries has been made available through various channels of support, including the provision of working capital requirements.
However, the main issue to be addressed more urgently has to do with the finalisation of the integrated model of agricultural financing that designs and delivers a suite of affordable products for farmers, ranging from farm insurance, farm expansion, blended finance, and all financing of working capital requirements. This approach will be strengthened by our deliberate partnership with the private sector to draw in new capital for agricultural financing.
The growth of emerging farmers into becoming commercial players will expand the productive capacity and contribute to the sector and the Gross Domestic Product of our country. Thank you very much. [Applause.]