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Agriculture and Veterinary Expenditure. Select Committee Finance 19 th October 2005. High and moderate-high potential agricultural land in Gauteng. Agriculture Expenditure. Agriculture Expenditure. Agriculture Expenditure. Veterinary Expenditure. Veterinary Expenditure.
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Agriculture and Veterinary Expenditure Select Committee Finance 19th October 2005
High and moderate-high potential agricultural land in Gauteng
Agriculture and Veterinary Expenditure in relation to other departmental expenditure.
Strategic objectives • Changed race and gender patterns of ownership in the agricultural sector • Improved levels of food security, particularly at household level • Optimal and sustainable use of agricultural land for primary production • Zonation of high potential agricultural land for exclusive agricultural use
Strategic objectives 2 • Access to local and international markets for farmers, irrespective of scale • Integration of primary production with the processing and service industries • Sustainable employment in the agricultural sector • Ensure adequate control of notifiable animal diseases. • Certify import and export of animals and products of animal origin.
Employment of funds • The programmes implemented in the previous year were continued with and in addition: • One of the household food security projects won the first prize in the informal markets category, and another of the project won the best vegetable garden trophy in Ekurhuleni • A decision was taken to use a substantial part of the budget to purchase equipment and tools for a new “homestead garden” project
Employment of funds 2 • GDACE partly financed and or undertook quality control on the initiatives to eradicate invasive vegetation. 288 330ha were cleared • 12 formal landcare forums were established throughout the Province • A provincial IT based Agricultural Potential Atlas was developed • The Agricultural Resource Audit was updated
Employment of funds 3 • In order to manage competing land uses and support best practice decision making, assessments were carried out on properties where applications were received for change and use from “Agriculture” to any other use.
Employment of funds • The previous year’s programmes were continued with. • A homestead food garden project was successfully piloted involving 500 homesteads • The beneficiaries of the project were granted “starter packs” consisting of shade cloth, tools, seeds and compost and trained over three months to produce vegetables • Expansion of establishment.
Employment of funds 2 • A conditional grant of R1,6m was used to clean-up the Klipriver bank in Soweto under the Land Care programme
Employment of funds • All previous projects were continued with the except for the outsourcing of 20 community gardens, that was discontinued in favour of the homestead food garden project. • The Household Food Security programme was expanded with 20 more staff. • 4 000 homestead garden projects were targeted and 4 200 were implemented.
Employment of funds 2 • Two study groups were formed in addition to the existing three. • A R4,6 million CASP grant was obtained for the assisting emerging farmers with on and off-farm infra-structure. 124 beneficiaries accessed infra-structure grants as part of the programme.
Employment of funds • The following are the activities for the 2005/06 financial year: • Upgrading of the directorate to a branch • The implementation of an effective monitoring and evaluation system for all Household Food Security projects. • Upgrading of the agricultural information system including agricultural data-bank
Employment of funds 2 • The zonation of medium to high potential agricultural land and the preservation thereof for sole agricultural use. This will be followed by the development of a comprehensive agricultural plan for the province. • The development of a new agricultural strategy that will have a major focus on: • Creation of agricultural hubs within the province • High value crops for niche markets
Employment of capital 3 • Implementation of AGRIBEE • Focus on emerging farmers whilst not neglecting the commercial sector
Employment of funds • The posts lower than senior management in the new establishment of the branch will be filled • Focus will be placed in the implementation of the new agricultural strategy • The main theme of the strategy will be maximize the contribution of agriculture to the growth and development economy of the Province.
Employment of funds 2 • The main vehicle for this would be through creating agricultural hubs with highly productive smallholdings as the primary production units. • Agro-processing and bio-technology will play a major role in this new initiative in the province • Allocations to veterinary has and will be increased steadily to ensure that the province provide an adequate regulatory function.
In Conclusion • The province mainly concentrated on: • Community and Household food gardens; • Farmer settlement support • SLAG (State Land Acquisition Grant) • LRAD (Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development) • Restitution • The main constraint is access to land. • A major threat is outbreak of an animal disease.
Conclusions continued. • Province has developed an Agricultural Strategy (2005) as part of the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy. • Focus will be on high potential agricultural land; • Development will be in hubs (zones, corridors) etc; • Niche market and high value crops will be pursued; • New technologies will be promoted in collaboration with the Agricultural Research Council and institutions of higher learning in Gauteng.
