POLICY & BUDGET SPEECH 2004/2005 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND LAND ADMINISTRATION

Honourable, Madam Speaker,

Honourable Premier,

Honourable Members of the Mpumalanga Legislature,

Honourable Members of the Executive Council,

Your Majesties Amakhosi,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

The people of all colours and creed are celebrating ten years of this nation’s first democracy, liberty and freedom.  The nation is celebrating democracy that for the majority of the people was only achieved ten years ago. Voting is a right that is taken for granted in many civilized nations of the world. But for South Africans in towns, informal settlements and villages voting is a right that has come after struggles were waged to rid the country of unjust systems. These unjust systems were responsible for creating among others, poverty, malnutrition and skewed development.

Honourable, Madam Speaker, As a province I think we will be doing injustice if we are to fail the spirit of our own fallen heroes namely: Pixley ka-Seme, Sol Mkhize and Gert Sibande by not advancing the values equality and nation building.

The time is now, to deliver the quality of services that the people have expressed in the many interactions that we had with them during our door to door campaigns.

The department is well placed to significantly contribute to fighting social challenges such as joblessness and poverty. The efforts of the department will focus more on economic growth, poverty eradication and environmental protection.

Honourable, Madam Speaker the Department presents this year's budget speech before the house and to the people of this province in this month of June, where in we celebrated the world environment day.

Allow me to start of by first looking at how far we have come, before looking at what is in store for the financial year a head of us.

OUR FOCUS ON THE PREVIOUS FINANCIAL YEAR AND ACHIEVEMENTS

The department has been on a journey in search of better ways to execute the mandate that we have been instructed to deliver on by the people of this province. 

We have developed strategic and operational plans that are reviewed quarterly for quality assurance.  The plans have assisted us to make progress in the delivery of services in the field of agriculture, land administration, conservation and environment.

We have intensified agricultural support to land reform processes and technical support to farmers, especially the emerging ones. The people of this Province have benefited from the provision of services for skills and infrastructure development and investment creation.

Food security programmes, and land care projects were provided with greater impact on poverty alleviation. Regulatory functions were successfully performed in areas such as nature conservation, environmental protection and animal disease control.

Tenure upgrades were facilitated to benefit people who for many years were not entitled to this right of ownership to land in areas where they live.

Research on crop production trials, veld and pastures and livestock production has been continued.

Honourable, Madam Speaker, no proper planning can be done without reliable statistics and it is for that reason that we will establish a component to develop reliable agricultural statistics.

Sustainable resource management has become a priority issue for development initiatives, particularly after the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). The LandCare initiative in the province was instrumental in enhancing sustainable resource utilization. 7 projects, whose main focus was on soil care, water care and land management for sustainability were successfully implemented. 

Somlomo, lenhlangano ye-MADC  inikete balimi labatfutfukako imalimboleko lengetulu kwetigidzi letilishumi nesiphohlongo temalandi  (R18 million) kute bakwati kutfutfukisa emapulazi abo. Loku kuhambisana nemkhankhaso wahulumende lotsi: Vuk' uzenzele.

On farmer training, the Lowveld College of Agriculture provided formal training and a total of 23 national diplomas were awarded.

Extension services of the department remain very central in the transfer of technology to farmers, particularly the emerging farmers.  It has played an important role in promoting food security and rural development.

On land reform, the Department continued to play a significant role in both the pre and post settlement support of the beneficiaries.

The Directorate Land Administration which was formerly with the Department of Housing and Land Administration was incorporated to the new Department of Agriculture and Land Administration in the financial year 2004/2005.

One sees this union as ‘kgomo di boetse sakeng’.

The move will at best improve synergies and further rationalize service delivery to the community in an integrated manner. Honourable, Madam Speaker, Allow me to reflect on the contribution made by this component in making the lives of our people better. 

The planning and surveying services have put in process a total of 10647 conversions in terms of the Tenure Upgrade into full title.  4 458 of these have already been handed out to beneficiaries.

Financial assistance was provided to Govan Mbeki and Dipaliseng Municipalities for the completion of 8 504 residential stands.  The component completed the surveying of 2 364 stands in Tonga Block B and Verna D.  12 community resolutions were facilitated resulting in state land being released for housing development.

During the past financial year, an amount of R5 million was spent on repairing flood-damaged infrastructure in the Nkomazi and Nsikazi areas as disaster relief measures.  Amounts of R5 million and R850 000 were also spent as relief to farmers who suffered losses due to fire and cold respectively.

 On infrastructure development, an amount of R26 million was spent for the development of irrigation infrastructure from Provincial Revenue.  The projects that benefited were Hereford, Boskop, "Agriset" farms and Swartkoppies farms, Tonga Block B and C.

  The nature conservation programme remains responsible for conserving a number of prime natural resources, geographic landscapes and formations. It also caters for the scarce indigenous plant and animal species as well as protected areas. The nature conservation function is delegated to the Mpumalanga Parks Board (MPB) and the department retains the policy and evaluation function.

Veterinary services increased the vaccination cover against rabies. Animal diseases are showing differential responses: sheep scab appears to be under control but Newcastle disease remains a serious threat and tuberculosis in wildlife is a cause for concern.

In the previous years we have facilitated the development of the Provincial Environmental Management Plan that was adopted by the provincial government.

  The Mpumalanga State of Environmental Report was published during the year under review. The report also indicates that Mpumalanga generates most of the energy requirements for the country by means of coal-fired power stations. Honourable Madam, Speaker, it should be noted that the generation of electricity through coal-fired power stations has a down side to it in that it increases pollutants in the air.  Some of the key findings of the report indicate that our Province is extremely water stressed with water requirements exceeding water availability.

  During the year under review, 186 authorizations were issued for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) for activities, which could have a significant impact on the environment.  

A grant of R 8,5 million was secured from the Development Bank of South Africa to be utilized for the training of local authorities in environmental management in the year 2004/2005.

  Honourable Madam Speaker, The Department continued to implement the Integrated National Waste Management Strategy by among other things facilitating the Cleanest Town Competition. 

  The Department successfully implemented environmental education programmes to increase public awareness.  Important commemorative days were facilitated in 113 events for Arbor Week, World Environment Week and a further 130 events for Water Week reaching a large number of people through the Province. R1 million was used for JuniorCare activities to green 15 schools yards and to instill environmental ethics in young people.

  The Department has worked in partnership with the private sector to create environmental awareness.

  PROGRAMME ADMINISTRATION

The programmes performed co-ordination, leadership, strategic management, corporate, financial management and quality assurance functions. The budget allocated was fully utilized without any major over or under-expenditure.

.OUTLOOK FOR THE YEAR 2004/2005

On Skills Development and Training

The department will continue its efforts to address the critical skill shortages by awarding bursaries annually. Deserving students from under-privileged backgrounds are given opportunities to study in scarce fields such as veterinary science and agricultural economics among others. In the past year ten students were awarded bursaries for studies toward bachelors of veterinary science degree at University of Pretoria. This year a further five students will be sent to study veterinary science.

On Farmer Support and Development

The department will continue to provide services that are geared towards the development of our economy, eradication of poverty and contribution to the creation of job opportunities. The programmes of the department are best suited to meet the challenges of closing the gap between the first and the second economy.

The agriculture sector remains a key important strategic sector for economic growth and rural development in the Province. It is still the largest employer of labour and provider for livelihood.  Agriculture remains central and key to the fight against poverty and underdevelopment in rural areas.

 The Province possesses some of the best soil in the country to make it a food basket for South Africa. It is for this reason that the department has prioritized utilization of this natural resource to contribute towards food security.

  Honourable, Madam Speaker, we will continue to provide services that are aimed at developing the small-scale farmers so that they can graduate into commercial farmers.

  Farmer support and training will be continued to ensure that the new entrants to agriculture are successfully taken on a path to productive farming. Through the years we have realized that extension and advisory services are central to the success of the emerging farmers and we will be continuing these services.

  An amount of R 141, 733 million has been set aside for farmer support and development. This amount includes money that is given to our parastatal the Mpumalanga Development Corporation, which is charged with administering the credit financing programmes for farmer development. Emerging farmers that have the potential to farm commercially are provided loan finance to exploit their farm potential.

CASP has been adopted to deal with the challenges of the provisioning of agricultural infrastructure in both on and off farm in line with the call by the Honourable Premier TSP Makwetla to intensify our support to farmers. The aim of CASP is to develop infrastructure to support farming and agro-business activities. The programme has a total allocation of R38,2 million that is made up of a national conditional grant and a portion of equitable share.

  The Department will ensure that the infrastructure development will be based on labour intensive methods. The programme will see the department-delivering infrastructure such as fencing, stock handling facilities and water provisioning - in the following areas:

Gert Sibande

A total of R4,041 million  will be spent

Nkangala

An amount of R 7,814 million will be spent

Ehlazeni

An amount of R7,048 million will be spent

  Agri-development Projects will see an amount of R10 million being spent on agri-business projects for beneficiaries coming from all three-district municipalities of the Province.

  Engineering Projects will receive an amount of R10 million for planning, construction of agricultural infrastructure that will include farm access roads, stock water dams, boreholes and irrigation infrastructure just to name but a few. We have ensured that food security projects, income-generating projects, communal garden will receive a share of this allocation to ensure production efficiency.

The department has set aside R4,8 million for the roll out of agriculture starter pack in support of poor households. The agriculture starter pack is made up of the seed and garden tools its aim is to see to it that household that are poor are assisted to produce their own food.

Agricultural College

Skill development through agricultural college will be taken to a higher level with the completion of the new computer centre and a reading room. Key appointments were recently finalized to ensure that the academic profile of the college meets the accreditation requirements for an institution of higher education and training. Discussions will be held with universities during the course of the year to develop degree courses that will be offered at the college in the near future.

Veterinary Services

The Province should be proud of its veterinary services that have been found to be among the best in the world in terms of its programmes of animal disease control. The continued monitoring of our animal disease control measures particularly on foot and mouth disease and the mad cow disease enables South Africa’s trading partners to remain confident of the quality of our agricultural products.

No stone will be left unturned to ensure that we continue our regulatory function for ensuring the health and safety of our agricultural products. Our veterinary personnel will continue to certify animals and animal products for export and to monitor imports.

On Land Care, the department will continue to implement land care projects that are funded through a national grant. An amount of R5,5 million is set aside for LandCare projects. The projects have a bias towards women and the youth in the rural areas. Labour intensive methods will be employed for soil care, water care and veld care management. Land care projects creates many temporary job opportunities that benefit communal farmers and stockowners. The Land Care supports sustainable use and management of natural resources

Land Reform

The department will increase its support to land reform beneficiaries especially now that the President has instructed that all land restitution claims must be finalized by the end of December 2005. We are putting in place plans and policies to fast track land and agrarian reform to meet this challenge.

Environmental Services

Waste Management initiatives will be intensified in this financial year as we work towards meeting the goal of the Polokwane Declaration, which aims to reduce waste generation and disposal by 50 % and 25 % respectively by 2012. The declaration also seeks to develop a plan for ZERO WASTE by 2022.

The department will through the support funding by the DBSA, facilitates the capacity building program aimed at municipalities on Integrated Environmental Planning and Management. This will enable the municipalities to develop and manage policies around environment in their municipalities.

  The department will intensify its monitoring and enforcing of environmental compliance. The department will provide the regulatory functions on the authorization of the Environmental Impact Assessment.

  The Department provides environmental awareness and facilitates competitions and campaigns as a means to promote sustainable environmental practices.  Environmental commemorative, Adopt – a – Schoolyard and adopt- a- spot competitions will be continued in the year 2004/2005. The competition provides incentives to schools and communities to implement sound environmental practices.

  THE BUDGET FOR 2004 TO 2005 HAVE BEEN ALLOCATED AS FOLLOWS:

Finally, Honourable, Madam Speaker, I hereby present to the house the 2004/5 budget to the amount of R487, 825 million for the Department of Agriculture and Land administration that we believe it will take us to higher levels of service delivery.

NGIYABONGA !!