Chairperson, hon Minister, hon MECs, hon members and department personnel, good afternoon. Minister, I would like to start by thanking you for sending a team from the department to the Intsika Yethu Municipality, specifically to the Ncora Irrigation Scheme in the Chris Hani District Municipality in April this year.
The Select Committee on Land and Environmental Affairs conducted oversight on two irrigation schemes in the Eastern Cape and what we observed in Ncora was shocking. This restituted farm was not operational and all the infrastructure, equipment and livestock with an estimated value of R7 million that had been provided to the community, as part of the restitution process, was auctioned off for about R35 000. The buildings and infrastructure were vandalised. We have completed our oversight report on this case and are now waiting for the final report from your department, Minister, so that further action can be taken against the responsible parties.
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has a great potential to assist our government in the fight against poverty as the sectors play a central and critical role in providing employment producing food for the country and generating income as well as in the subsistence of the rural poor.
The roles that agriculture, forestry and fisheries play in food security, through providing goods and services to the rural poor, make them very important sectors in a developing country like South Africa.
These three sectors have the potential to revive the rural economy of South Africa, and with appropriate policies and support they can make a significant contribution to addressing the country's current socioeconomic challenges. Although these sectors remain a priority, our government is faced with the challenge of balancing these priorities with other priority sectors such as education, health and rural development.
Rural development and the creation of employment are top government priorities that will receive specific focus during the MTEF period, as mentioned by the President in the 2010 state of the nation address and the Minister of Finance, Mr Gordhan, during the presentation of the Budget Speech.
To ensure improvement in rural productivity and enhancement of rural livestock, the focus on rural development necessitates a strengthened and effective collaboration between the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.
Agriculture is expected to play a central role in rural development by linking food security with the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme, CRDP, as well as with the Land and Agrarian Reform Project, whilst forestry and fisheries are key economic drivers for the country.
Therefore, our government's priorities through which agriculture will play a role in rural development during the MTEF period include improving government's support to small-scale and emerging farmers through the integration of agricultural support programmes with land reform; ensuring that 60% of the rural households can provide for their food needs by 2014; and creating jobs, particularly for the youth.
Furthermore, the department plans to complete an agricultural production strategy in 2010 to promote the growth and development of subsistence, smallholder and commercial producers through different commodity groups and strategies. This should be fully supported as this is what is needed for the sector.
The departmental policy's central focus is to address the challenges that are faced by rural and vulnerable people by empowering them to create co- operatives and small, micro and medium enterprises, SMMEs; to facilitate access to development finance; and to improve capacity-building and mentorship. These initiatives are all urgently required and fully supported by the Select Committee on Land and Environmental Affairs.
The agriculture support service programme is a new programme that provides agricultural training; extension and advisory services; scientific research and technology; risk and disaster management services; and the promotion of equitable access and commercial viability of emerging farmers. This is a service that is fully supported and required for the sector.
The forestry programme priorities include developing a strategy and a fund for the SMMEs in the sector; developing a strategy to address timber shortages; establishing extension support for emerging growers and entrepreneurs; and reducing the regulatory burden on small and emerging businesses. This programme is responsible for ensuring sustainable management of plantations, natural or indigenous forests and woodlands to realise their optimal social, environmental and economic benefits.
The priorities of the fisheries programme include establishing and revitalising state-owned hatcheries; developing aquaculture development zones; cage culture pilot projects in state-owned waterworks and coastal areas; and doing research and development on candidate culture species.
All these mechanisms are fully supported as they relate to the key focus areas of our government. The department also needs to address the issue of fishing rights and quotas for our marginalised communities - too many fishing communities are out of work and poverty-stricken.
The core business and mandate of the Marine Living Resources Fund is to manage the development and sustainable use of the country's marine and coastal resources, as well as to protect the integrity and quality of the marine and coastal ecosystem.
However, due to the split of the Marine Living Resources Fund's functions between the two departments, the allocated funds to operate the research and surveillance vessels were not transferred to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries along with the fund. The fund is only allocated a government grant for the marine aquaculture function. This is a very serious concern, particularly with regard to the monitoring and surveillance of our seas, as the country faces challenges with regard to poaching of marine resources.
Marine research is also important as it guides marine activities and provides the scientific basis for setting the catch limits which the fishing industry can harvest in a sustainable manner during its commercial operations. In its strategic plan for 2010-11, the department plans to do research on the catch limits for 22 fishery sectors and ecosystem interactions. However, the fisheries budget is not adequate to enable all these activities as almost 95% of the programme budget is spent on compensation of employees. This is an area of concern for the Select Committee on Land and Environmental Affairs.
Currently the department administers three conditional agricultural grants to provinces, namely the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme, Casp, Ilima/Letsema and the LandCare programme grants. In this MTEF period, Casp, which aims to provide support to newly established emerging farmers, is allocated a R2,9 billion grant which is spread out as R862,4 in the 2010- 11 financial year; R979,3 million in 2011-12; and R1 billion in 2012-13.
The Casp grant also includes the extension recovery plan which focuses on improving extension services through training and provision of equipment for extension officers.
The department's outputs for Casp are all based on infrastructure provision, namely fencing, livestock, poultry structures, boreholes, water systems and tractors. This is a serious concern as the required support for emerging farmers goes beyond infrastructure provision.
Given the provided infrastructure, the government is silent on concrete plans on how it will improve and increase agriculture production; provide post-settlement support; build capacity and improve farmers' skills, including agribusiness training; and improve information systems for planning and decision-making; as well as how it will improve farm income through job creation and food security. These are all desired outcomes for Casp but can never be met by only providing infrastructure.
The department measures performance by the number of projects and beneficiaries involved in these projects. However, it fails to give details of the benefits that have accrued and their impact on the communities in relation to the funds that were invested.
The LandCare programme, which aims to optimise productivity and the sustainable use of national resources, is allocated a grant of R173 million in the MTEF period. The LandCare programme does very little for sustainable use of agriculture and natural resources. While some of its activities are commendable, some are misplaced as, for example, in the Eastern Cape where a flagship LandCare programme project was a wool production project run by the National Wool Growers' Association, NWGA. This saw lots of sheep- shearing sheds being erected throughout the province.
This specific project, although it has improved income from wool production in some areas, has, however, done very little for sustainable resource use as some of these areas where shearing sheds were erected did not even have grazing land for the sheep.
In order to ensure the optimal use of financial resources, to be effective and to avoid duplication, there is also a need for integration of the LandCare programme with other government programmes with similar objectives.
In conclusion, I would like to assert that the department has a major task ahead, however, I know that the Minister has capable hands and leadership.
Angayenza yonke le nto siyifunayo iphumelele. Ndiyabulela. [Kwaqhwatywa.] [She can accomplish all that we need. Thank you. [Applause.]]