By Hon N P Msimango MPL
Madame Speaker,
The Inkatha Freedom Party acknowledges the budget allocation of R2.171billion to the Department of Agriculture & Rural Development. While say that we acknowledge the allocation, the IFP would have welcomed a much larger slice of the provincial budget to this department for many reasons which I will unpack as I go along.
In her Budget Speech the Hon Belinda Scott, in reference to economic growth, stated
“The sectors that are severely affected and are showing negative growth in South Africa include agriculture, mining, electricity and water, and to a lesser extent manufacturing.”
In a province like KwaZulu-Natal where we have vast rural areas where communities rely on agriculture to sustain themselves and where we have many large-scale commercial farmers who contribute to the economic growth of our province, we cannot afford to have negative growth. We certainly cannot afford to have commercial farmers who produce food for our nation as well as create thousands of jobs, being forced to shut down because of a lack of support from government. The agricultural sector in our province has a critical role to play in the provision of food as well as boosting our failing economy.
Our province was once a large producer of agricultural products much of which was intended for the export market. Today we see a drastic decline in the agricultural output from KZN. This is sad in view of the fact that KwaZulu-Natal has vast fertile farm lands that have huge potential to help boost our economy. MEC Scott also made reference to the sluggish economic performance that is further compounded by the worst drought experienced in the country over the past two decades which is responsible for driving food prices higher. The Department of Agriculture needs to provide assistance to farmers in order to improve the agricultural output that our farms are capable of.
The IFP welcomes the continued assistance in implementing the agrarian transformation strategy as well as the automation of pump stations and the rehabilitation of irrigation infrastructure at Mjindi. It is unfortunate that we still see the theft of irrigation infrastructure. Apart from this being costly to replace, it also results in huge crop losses and demoralisation of farmers. The department must engage with local role players to put an end to this criminal practice.
In view of the call to implement cost cutting measures, the department needs to ensure that tractors and farm implements that it supplies to communal farms are put to good use. There has to be regular inspections and audits to locate the whereabouts of these assets and to ascertain whether they are being used for their intended purpose.
Madame Speaker, drought relief must be a priority for this department in view of the devastation and hardship being inflicted upon our people. The IFP welcomes the allocation of R200million in this financial year for various drought relief efforts but this department does not have access to the entire amount since R150million of this amount has been allocated to COGTA to implement drought relief projects. It is , therefore that there is close inter departmental co-operation in bringing drought relief to the worst affected areas. While the department has long term plans with regard to drought relief, it is important that immediate relief is also rolled out to ensure that people receive relief and livestock are not lost.
Programme 3, Rural Development has a critical role to play in assisting smallholder farmers. During times of drought and crop losses, it is the small scale farmers who suffer the most. It is therefore important that technical, financial and infrastructure support is made available to these farmers. It is also essential that educational support with regard to planting seasons, types of crops to be planted, fertilisers to be used, etc, are made available to small scale farmers.
I thank You
