Madam Speaker, the hon Mr Smith is correct in what he says about the decisions that were taken by the AU summit when it met in Maputo with regard to this 10% budget allocation. That decision was taken and that decision remains the decision of the AU. However, when the matter was then discussed - this came out of a process that was led by the African Ministers of agriculture, working together with the FAO, etc - and presented to the Ministers of finance on the continent, it brought back the challenges that we face. The Ministers of finance said that, indeed, this was a very good decision. However, it means taking resources from somewhere else, because there was no spare money available somewhere to provide this 10% of the budget.
Now, should we move money from education or water or somewhere else in order to finance agriculture? I'm mentioning this to indicate that the matter is a challenge. Everybody recognises the importance of agriculture and the need to deploy these kinds of resources to agriculture. But where are the resources, particularly given that many African countries depend, in excess of 50% of their budgets, on donor support? And in many instances donor support is targeted: "We are going to give you this money to spend on education." You can't divert it to agriculture. So there is a remaining challenge.
With regard to our situation, yes indeed, the hon member would understand that this 10% issue is an aggregate figure that was given. The sorts of resources that would have to be given from country to country would vary, and indeed I would imagine that in the South African case in all likelihood you would not require that 10%, you would require something lower.
We have - I'm quite certain you know this - already taken a number of decisions together with commercial agriculture really to beef up and make sure that we further develop the agricultural sector to address this matter of food security and self-sufficiency.
So, there is that common agreement strategy between government and the commercial sector which we'll continue to review. Even in our last working group meeting we came back to this matter to ask what it is that we should do. Indeed, if there is enough time - if you were to pose this question on another occasion, hon member - we will give a detailed response as to what we are doing.
Regarding the commitment that we have made as government together with the private sector, we need to do something special about agriculture. We need to increase self-sufficiency in food and in a sense to reverse what has happened, where we have become an importer of food. We have to address the matters about food security and deal with issues about the proper utilisation of land in the former homeland areas - matters that the hon Buthelezi has been raising for some years. We can give a detailed account on that.
Indeed, this would then have to be reflected in the budget allocations to make sure that that programme succeeds. Thanks, Madam Speaker. [Applause.]