Thank you very much. I think the question that has been asked is very important. Firstly, our assessment is that, yes, as government, over the 25 years we have assisted small farmers but our assistance was ad hoc and not consistent. As a result, few farmers have graduated into commercial farmers. That's a shortcoming which we are ready to improve now. Our farmers out there must know that this time around, our support is going to be consistent until they graduate into commercial farmers. They must stand on their own.
Government also, must try and provide the necessary market for farm products that can be bought by government so that our small farmers don't struggle looking for markets to sell their products. It should be government's duty to go closer to small farmers, assist them to produce correctly the quality of their products so that these farmers can supply food - vegetables to our hospitals; and vegetables to our schools. The nutrition programme alone in the whole country is billions and billions but this goes to the commercial farmers.
Instead of supporting small farmers grow, give them a platform to grow. It is a deliberate and determination from government to ensure that these small farmers grow. This has been a shortcoming. Our support has been erratic. We have settled land and some of the land is not productive because we disengaged in terms of support. Those are some of the criticism that we are taking and we are ready to improve. The Minister is going to announce exactly the kind of support post-settlement, the support centres that we are going to create at district level, and what kind of support will be contained there, and the life of the farmer who is being supported. But we must hasten to say, a farmer can't emerge forever. He must emerge up until a particular time and go. You can't be emerging, getting support from government and yet not grow. At a certain particular point, you must grow and learn to stand on your own, and compete with other commercial farmers. Thank you very much. [Applause.]