South Africa’s national department of agriculture, land reform and rural development has just released its performance plan for the coming financial year. Access to land, integrated rural development, sustainable agriculture and food security for all dominate the agenda.
The annual performance plan, released late last night (Tuesday, 5 April 2022), is deemed to be a clear and practical implementation plan that outlines what the department will undertake in the next year.
The department says it forms part of government’s quest towards improving rural infrastructure, enhancing competitiveness, radically changing spatial patterns, and building a resilient, united and transformed farming sector.
Better access to land
According to agri minister Thoko Didiza, access to land will take top priority. This is because land is an economic asset and its ownership, especially by women, young people and people with disabilities, will unlock the potential for a dynamic, growing and job-creating agricultural sector.
“In bridging the administration and support for this noble intent, the Land and Agrarian Reform Agency will institute frameworks and safeguard that there is integrated development to ensure that land access yields broader economic spin-offs,” she says.
However, comprehensive farmer support interventions are necessary to bring land into production, she adds.
These support interventions will include “the strengthening of farmer extension and advisory services, broadening access to start-up capital and blended finance, enhancing provision of on-off farm infrastructure, and penetrating into mainstream markets”.
The minister also considers rural infrastructure a key to competitiveness as it is critical in linking food supplies to the country’s growing urban hubs. “The focus is, therefore, on the building, operating and maintaining of quality infrastructure in rural areas to ensure security and quality of food, feed and fibre supplies.”
22 policy developments and reworks
According to Mooketsa Ramasodi, director-general at the department, the performance plan is published as South Africa emerges from, in many respects, the worst pandemic humanity has ever faced in modern history.
He explains that the department will be working on 22 policy frameworks, spread across the three functional areas of agriculture, land reform and rural development.
The department will also prioritise the development of the cannabis master plan, as well as the implementation of other master plans in partnership with its counterparts in national government.
But the primary focus remains the agriculture and agro-processing master plan, which Ramasodi says will be launched within the first half of the year. “[The department] will hold policy discussions with relevant stakeholders and social partners at national level to ensure successful implementation of [our master plan] at provincial and municipality levels.”
Production compliance to food safety and biosecurity regulation will also be prioritised.
Another focus area will be a relook at “a coherent implementation mechanism for the department, considering the capacity of provincial shared services centres and provincial departments of agriculture”.
Mainstreaming black farmers
Through restitution the department aims to settle a total of almost 720 land claims, while it wants to increase hectares made available to farmers, and hopes to fast-track outstanding labour tenant cases with the Special Master for Labour Tenants.
Deputy minister Mcebisi Skwatsha says that land is a lucrative financial asset that does not depreciate, is in high demand and in limited supply. It therefore ensures livelihoods in the long run.
According to Skwatsha, land reform programmes will be accelerated in the 2022-2023 financial year with the following interventions:
- The Land Redistribution Policy and Bill and the Communal Land Tenure Policy and Bill will be processed to expedite a change in land ownership patterns.
- Restitution, currently with 7 069 old-order backlogs, will receive more attention and a total of 372 land claims are prioritised for finalisation.
- The revised Expropriation Bill, which specifies five types of land that may be expropriated with payment of equitable compensation but not market-related,
will be processed to Parliament, together with public inputs. - A Land and Agriculture Agency will be established for a focused, efficient, effective and results-oriented running of the land reform programme.
“These interventions, further building on the already achieved progress, are intended for integrating the previously dispossessed Africans into self-sustaining economic activity and ultimately transitioning them into the more lucrative mainstream economy.”
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