Publications
Partners
Cape Town - The annual performance plan and budget for 2018/19 for the Western Cape Department of Agriculture comes at a difficult time for this sector due to the drought, according to ANC member of the provincial parliament Siyazi Tyatyam.
He responded to the recent tabling of the provincial budget for the agriculture sector.
Tyatyam acknowledged the contribution of the business community to the agriculture sector - farmers particularly. He said they foresaw the current new challenges and started making plans to adapt.
He pointed out that already in 2015 climate data was presented to the provincial authorities to caution about the phenomenon experienced currently.
"They (scientists) indicated that going forward there’s even a need for changing the patterns of farming. This clearly indicates a movement is required [away] from the current spatial plans," said Tyatyam.
In his view, the current water crisis is due to a failure on the part of the DA to manage water in the province.
Other issues Tyatyam raised included his dissatisfaction with the way the department is running pilot projects as part of the Comprehensive Agriculture Support Programme (CASP); support for co-ops in value chain development; and more access to the value chain needed for wine brands owned by black and coloured people.
Examples of such wine brands not benefiting from the value chain he mentioned are Lathitha Wines; Sesfikile Wines; Thembi Wines; Libbi Wines; Hope Wine; Seven Wines; Women in Wines; Koni Wines and Thokozani Wines.
"Change is intimidating, but it can’t be postponed," said Tyatyam.
Land
In his view, the agriculture budget should be speaking to the allocation of funds for the transformation of land to provide equity of the farm land.
"Many black and coloured people want to farm too. Land inequality in the Western Cape is huge and it can’t be tolerated any longer. The lodges and hunting industry is one of the most lucrative industries in the country, yet you do not find any black-owned hunting outfitters in the province," he said.
"Therefore, the wealth is not distributed amongst the people, because they do not own land to conduct the hunting operations or host business conference facilities out of town."
Beverley Schäfer, a DA member of the Western Cape provincial parliament, said in response to the budget that it is estimated that about 57 000 agriculture jobs will be lost in the province due to the drought. Economists have also indicated that, due to the 2015/16 drought, farm debt has increased to about R160bn.
She commended the many farmers who have diversified their crops in order to ensure that their workers do not need to be laid off. She thanked the Western Cape Department of Agriculture for ensuring that emerging grain farmers and livestock farmers in the province were supported over the past three years.
She said the provincial department is the only one to have a farmer support and development programme predominantly to support black smallholder farmers and commercial farmers through sustainable development and land reform initiatives. This includes mentors to assist smallholder farmers.
Of the R834.34m for the Western Cape Department of Agriculture for the 2018/19 year:
- R124.49m will go towards administration;
- Sustainable resource management would get R91.134m;
- Farmer support and development would receive R278.5m;
- Veterinary services is allocated R96.85m;
- Research and technology services will get R126.28m;
- Agriculture economics services would receive R27.92m;
- Structured education and training will get R65.01m;
- Rural development would receive R24.13m.
* Sign up to Fin24's top news in your inbox: SUBSCRIBE TO FIN24 NEWSLETTER
