DAFF News

Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Programme (IFSNP)

By The SA Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF)

The department took an active role in arranging the World Food Day celebrations that were held in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal on 16 October 2006. In celebrating this initiative of the FAO, more than 186 countries joined hands with our country on World Food Day. This was also symbolic in the sense that it was on this day that the FAO was founded in 1945. The theme for 2006, “Investing in agriculture for food security”, highlighted the vital role of agriculture in ensuring that all people have access to sufficient food of a wide variety to lead healthy, active lives.

The event also marked the midway point of the 20-year period between the 1996 World Food Summit when the world’s leaders pledged to reduce poverty and food insecurity by half by 2015. The World Food Summit plan of action and the South African Constitution (which was enacted in the same year) recognise access to food and clean water as part of basic social rights. To take further steps toward achieving this objective, the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) will be expanded to all nine provinces. Altogether 10 % of the total CASP budget will also be aligned to projects that contribute directly towards food security. In line with the strategic goal of reducing food insecurity, a total of 66 364 households were provided with agricultural production packages in all the nine provinces during the third quarter of 2006/07.

The Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information Mapping System (FIVIMS) project was piloted in Ga-Sekhukhune district, Limpopo Province and launched during October 2006. As part of the national roll-out, food security profiles for the 13 rural nodes will be developed and baseline surveys conducted in three rural nodes.

In the light of the importance of food security in the nation’s development and the overall goal of improved welfare of the population, Government places high priority on several national policies and programmes, which outline the coherent goal to raise the nutritional levels, especially the more vulnerable sections of the population. Some of these initiatives include:

• Ziyazondla in the Eastern Cape Province
• Siyavuna in KwaZulu-Natal
• Asibuyele Masimini in Mpumalanga and a number of other Household Food Production Programmes countrywide.

Within the Social Sector Cluster we are challenged to take the lead regarding the implementation of the IFSNP. For this purpose, we collaborated with relevant stakeholders, including nongovernmental organisations, schools and communities in general, to assist in the development and dissemination of suitable technologies, information and training modules to provide assistance in increasing the levels of household food production.

Through ASGISA, a number of initiatives were embarked upon to address its objectives and this includes Project Gweb’indlala, which focuses on food security through infrastructure development, provision of key production inputs, facilitating market access, job creation and poverty alleviation. As part of popularising of ASGISA and to relieve poverty and alleviate food insecurity in the country, the department expanded the Household Food Security Programme to all nine provinces. This programme was first piloted in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo provinces.

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Vulnerable Workers on Farms, in Forestry and Fisheries Programme

• Call for expression for non-governmental organisations, community based organisations and other civil society organisation providing services to vulnerable workers on farms and in forestry and fisheries
• RESOLUTIONS OF THE NATIONAL SUMMIT ON VULNERABLE WORKERS IN AGRICULTURE,FORESTRY AND FISHERIES
• APPLICATION FOR FUNDING FOR PROJECTS TARGETING VULNERABLE WORKERS ON FARMS, IN FORESTRY AND FISHERIES
• A call to all non-governmental, community-based and other civil society organisations providing services to vulnerable workers on farms and in forestry and fisheries to register with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
• ‘n Beroep word gedoen op alle nie-regeringsorganisasies, gemeenskapgebaseerde en ander burgerlike gemeenskapsorganisasies wat dienste lewer aan kwesbare werkers op plase en in bosbou en visserye om te registreer by die Department van Landbou, Bosbou en Visserye
• NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS (NGOs), COMMUNITY BASED ORGANISATIONS (CBOs) AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS REGISTRATION FORM

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Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP)

During the past two years agricultural support has been provided to land and agrarian reform projects, which contributes towards food security, job creation and poverty alleviation. Since the implementation of CASP in 2004/05, a total amount of R750 million has been allocated to this programme. Because delivery of agricultural support services is dependent on the capacity of provincial departments, we continued to direct the process of empowering the provinces with regard to planning, implementation, information dissemination and reporting.

The Micro-agricultural Financial Institutions of South Africa (Mafisa) provides access to finance for farmers, especially beneficiaries of the land restitution, redistribution and land tenure reform programmes. The Land Bank administers the credit scheme on behalf of the department and provincial departments provide assistance to access the scheme. Four development finance institutions are currently participating in the disbursement of Mafisa funds in the provinces.

Challenges experienced in implementing the scheme mainly included a lack of capacity and a lack of economic and/or financial experience at provincial departments. Intervention measures were instituted and provinces have now assigned Agricultural Economists to assist applicants with their operational plans. The process of training Credit Committees in collaboration with AgriSETA is also continuing.

During 2005/06 and 2006/07 amounts of R144 million and R196 million, respectively, were transferred from the department’s budget to the Land Bank. To date good progress has been made with providing loans and a total of 900 loans to the value of R24 million were approved by end of September 2006. Loans have been issued since January 2006 and progress is monitored on a continuous basis to fast-track implementation of the scheme.

A total of 84 agricultural farmer co-operatives have been established. These co-operatives are fully registered and linked to financial services and businesses. We facilitated the training and capacity building of all established cooperatives through accredited training institutions and colleges of agriculture.

To ensure the commercial viability of emerging farmers from a household food security level to commercial level, a farmer-to-farmer mentorship policy was approved. This policy will be piloted in four provinces on 36 projects. During 2007 a total of 36 extension officers will be trained in providing mentoring to farmers.

The agricultural marketing environment was reviewed and a report with specific recommendations to revisit the Agricultural Marketing Act will be submitted to the Minister. Good progress was also made with reviewing the agricultural trade strategy and the first draft, incorporating industry inputs, has been developed. The strategy will also incorporate the outcome of the marketing review process.

To develop a comprehensive agro-logistics strategy and an investment plan, a report on the status of agro-logistics in South Africa has been completed. The report is at present being discussed with other government departments such as Transport, Trade and Industry and public entities such as the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC), Spoornet and the industry.

A total of 17 commodity-based agricultural marketing value chain profiles were produced and published. Farmers use these profiles to gain insight into the agricultural marketing structures of the different industries. In July 2006 the EFTA-Southern African Customs Union (SACU) agreements were signed for implementation in 2007. This will, however, also depend on the ratification procedures followed by the SACU partners. The trade negotiating position for free trade agreement between SACU and India has not been finalised yet because of a delay in negotiations as a result of the new government in India.

The department regards skills development as one of the critical areas for the success of ASGISA. About 800 emerging farmers received hands-on training in various fields of farm management at the Grootfontein Agricultural Development Institute (GADI). Commodity-directed mentorship programmes were presented to a total of 10 000 farmers, while 2 251 farmworkers received adult basic education and training in line with the objectives of the draft transformation charter. All the participants in the programme are beneficiaries of the Agrarian and Land Reform Programme.

During 2006 several policies and strategies were developed to promote sustainable agricultural production. These include policies on animal improvement, aquaculture, wildlife ranching, range and forage, grain, vegetables, industrial and indigenous crops, ornamental plants, as well as biosafety.

Livestock farming by black emerging farmers is often characterised by overstocking and poor productivity, leading to overgrazing. The livestock development strategy was developed and is currently being implemented to address this challenge.

Production guidelines aimed at providing information to farmers, extension officers and other clients were also developed. These included guidelines for small-scale egg production, household broiler production, a management programme for a small-farm piggery, rabbit production for household use, animal traction, urban and peri-urban animal agriculture, milch goats, weaning of calves, beef cattle, veld management, fruit production, grain crops, vegetable production, industrial crops, ornamental plants and indigenous crop production.

Early warning climate advisories were issued to the agricultural sector on a monthly basis to assist farmers in managing climatic risks. An awareness campaign on broad risk and disaster management issues was also launched to create awareness on how to manage risks. A total of 62 470 farmers participated in the drought relief scheme. Altogether 52 259 of these were small-scale farmers and 10 211 commercial farmers.

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Agricultural Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (AgriBEE)

The draft AgriBEE Charter was completed and submitted to the Minister for consideration and approval. In November 2006 the charter was discussed with the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs. Proposed changes were incorporated in the charter and it was handed over to the Minister of Trade and Industry for gazetting.

Good progress was made during 2006 with the testing of business models with selected commodity groups and local development organisations working on the best way to integrate emerging participants into mainstream agriculture. Evaluation and monitoring systems for AgriBEE activities are being set up and implementation and monitoring interactions will be conducted at national, provincial, regional and local levels. Selected service providers will conduct training workshops on the impact and relevance of AgriBEE on local municipality delivery levels and the agricultural sector during 2007.

Implementation of AgriBEE is based on the commodity/product value chain approach and diversified through ASGISA. This approach is integral to creating linkages, partnerships and networks for balanced, mutually benefiting results for all concerned. It will ensure enhanced competitiveness and sustainable development with improvement/expansion of the existing businesses, rehabilitation of ailing agricultural business concerns and expanded entry for new businesses in the sector.

As part of the process to unlock the full entrepreneurial potential in the sector, we have also been encouraging partnerships between established agricultural enterprises and emerging farmers and entrepreneurs. The grain strategy’s implementation plan is nearing completion and the fruit industry’s commodity action plan is in the process of being developed.

To empower youth and women to contribute towards the transformation and growth of the sector, the external bursary scheme and the experiential and internship programme were established. Since the introduction of the bursary scheme in 2003, a total of R18,9 million has been invested in students studying for various degrees within the identified scarce skills categories within the agricultural sector. A total of 383 bursaries have been awarded in the past four years and a further 100 bursaries are planned for 2007/08. About 160 graduates were placed as interns within the department and agricultural commodity organisations in 2006/07. Our aim is to inspire and support theentry of youth into the agricultural sector.

DAFF News

African Agricultural Development Programme (AADP)

South Africa experienced an increased demand by African countries for technical assistance support in the field of agriculture. A technical assistance programme (TAP) called the African Agricultural Development Programme (AADP) was established as a contribution towards regional stability and the sustainable development of the economies of African countries. The TAP is considered to be an important enabler for Southern African Development Countries’ (SADC) regional development with potential long-term benefits for South Africa.

A report on intra-African agricultural trade to promote trade as part of the AADP is being finalised. The department has completed desktop studies for selected countries, which will be visited in order to supplement the information for compiling the report. Negotiation positions for ongoing negotiations within the SADC, World Trade Organisation (WTO), Southern African Customs Union (SACU), Mercosur and the TDCA review are being developed as the negotiations proceed.

Through the assistance of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) technical co-operation support, the department has co-ordinated the development of a national medium-term investment programme (NMTIP) as a framework for implementation of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) at national level. Bankable investment project profiles have been developed to focus national efforts and actions onto specific areas of project development and funding.

During 2007 we will continue our close relationship with the FAO and the FAO Africa Regional Office to ensure our contribution to a prosperous Africa and a better world.