Backyard farms, blended finance, agri-parks top Gauteng budget

Almost 4.5 million (28%) Gauteng residents are food insecure. In addressing the Gauteng provincial legislature, agriculture MEC Vuyiswa Ramokgopa said her department was working around the clock to address food insecurity in the province.

While delivering her budget of R671.1 million, Ramokgopa reaffirmed their fight against hunger and committed to reducing food insecurity in the province by 10% over the medium term.

“This will be achieved via a multi-pronged approach of driving sustainable livelihoods through local backyard and community farming initiatives, as well as partnering with various organisations to combat food waste and facilitate the supply of excess food to vulnerable communities.

“R41 million has been allocated to the subsistence farming programme under the Ilima Letsema Programme,” she said.

Projects already in play

The MEC said they have recently launched a R100 million blended finance initiative, with over 30 agro-processors set to benefit from it.

“Already, 32 agro-enterprises are undergoing due diligence as potential beneficiaries, and we expect this fund to stimulate inclusive growth, downstream value chains, and much-needed jobs.

“The department has historically initiated projects that remain incomplete, notably within infrastructure initiatives. To address this, we are intensifying oversight, strengthening internal controls, and holding project managers accountable to ensure every allocated rand delivers tangible outcomes.”

According to Ramokgopa, in the previous financial year, her department had managed to succeed in achieving zero fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

“We have taken a zero tolerance approach towards irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure, and we are streamlining our project assessment and delivery processes whilst strengthening supply chain management capacity to ensure that we avoid this.

“To this end, we have also initiated partnerships that extend beyond governmental entities, embracing private sector collaboration and innovative solutions to deliver increased impact.”

Commercialising smallholder farmers

Ramokgopa said the budget affirms their commitment to move from ambition to action grounded in accountability, efficiency, and measurable outcomes.

“We will continue working with partners across sectors to maximise the impact of every programme, doing more with less and rising to meet the moment. We understand that for us to succeed, we must rise together.”

She added that the commercialisation of smallholder farmers continues to be one of the three key departmental priorities. “This will be achieved by intensifying aggregation through our agri-parks. In the 2025/2026 financial year, we will enhance the development of agri-parks as a farmer development and aggregation platform for smallholder farmers and agro-processors.

“Through our R20 million partnership with the South African Poultry Association, we established Gauteng’s first egg aggregation pack station, enabling smallholder producers to benefit from scale, reduce costs, and gain access to new markets. This facility has already aggregated over 12 million eggs and created market access for 25 farmers. We will expand support to such initiatives.”