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Your Majesty;
Ms Thoko Didiza, national Minister of Agriculture;
Mr Dirk du Toit, Deputy Minister of Agriculture;
Mr Ian Johnson, Chairman of CGIAR and Vice-president of the World Bank;
The Executive Director of CGIAR;
Directors-General of the CGIAR Research Centres;
My fellow MECs from the other provinces;
Distinguished scientists;
Other honoured guests; and
Ladies and gentlemen.

It is my very pleasant task to welcome you today to Cedara, where South Africa is the host. Cedara is the major agricultural research station of my provincial Department and incorporates one of the two agricultural colleges of this province. These complement the activities of the University of Natal Faculty of Agriculture, as well as the University of Zululand, which have established an excellent reputation over the years. It is fitting, I think, that such a distinguished body of world scientists should come to Cedara because I believe our research here, and our objectives, mesh very smoothly with those of the CGIAR in its operations all over the world. We too are committed to optimised food production from finite resources; we too serve under-developed communities; and we too see research as the key to unlocking the potential of the land and providing food security and new economic opportunities.

I am informed that the CGIAR is the largest scientific network of its kind in the world and has some truly impressive achievements since its establishment in 1971. To mention but a few:

* 55 million hectares in developing countries planted to CGIAR-developed wheat varieties every year, accounting for 80 % of total production;

* 90% of irrigated rice in Latin America traceable to varieties introduced by the CGIAR; a trebling of maize production in West and Central Africa between 1981 and 1996, due to new, high-yielding, early-maturing varieties.

I find this especially encouraging, ladies and gentlemen - the rescue of 300 million hectares of ecologically fragile land by the intensive use of technologies pioneered by the CGIAR. This indicates innovative thinking backed by sound science. It chimes in every way with what we are attempting to achieve in South Africa and, of course, I speak specifically for KwaZulu-Natal. The CGIAR and ourselves clearly have the same vision and speak the same language. I understand South Africa's Agricultural Research Council is about to join the CGIAR network. This would be an excellent thing because it is by world partnership and a pooling of knowledge and expertise that we have the opportunities to make up some of the immense backlogs in feeding a world whose population is still burgeoning and is still increasingly stalked by malnutrition.

Your Majesty, ladies and gentlemen, South Africa is in many ways a microcosm of that world, in which a relatively wealthy industrialised sector, supported by a highly developed sector of commercial agriculture, coexists with a vast mass of people involved mainly in under-productive subsistence agriculture. In KwaZulu-Natal, the dichotomy is particularly stark. This province has a strong industrial component and a commercial agricultural sector which thrives in conditions of high rainfall, reasonably good soils and a sound economic infrastructure. Yet, it exists cheek by jowl with another sector which has the same rainfall and very often similar soils, but produces nowhere near its potential.

There are historical reasons for this, of course, but an understanding of history does not of itself reverse the imbalance. While measures are being taken to redress imbalances inherited from the past, I nevertheless believe it is only by conscious effort, lateral thinking and by a deliberate harnessing of skills, capital, human energy and the benefits of modern science that we are going to be able to make the imaginative and practical leaps necessary to escape the past. And modern science has a crucial role to play in that. The agricultural methods of the past will not suffice, in certain cases they have actually contributed to lack of sustainability. It is only by innovative, modern, scientifically established methods that we can hope to make up the backlogs we have inherited.

GREEN REVOLUTION

Ladies and gentlemen, KwaZulu-Natal is committed to making those leaps of the imagination and of practical effort. I would like to share with you some thoughts on how research is used to advance agricultural production in our province. Glancing through the CGIAR literature, I am interested to find the term Green Revolution used to describe your efforts world-wide. It is an expression increasingly used also by myself, and my officials, to describe our plans for agriculture in this province over the next 20 years. We have embarked on a course of virtually quadrupling agricultural production in KwaZulu-Natal over that period, largely through stimulating the under-productive regions of high potential which I have mentioned; also by creating a new category of commercial farmer; and by attracting investment in agri-industry. This must obviously originate from markets and exploitation of the opportunities they offer. Any new development should start from the availability of a market.

However, scientific knowledge lies at the heart of it. Our objective of a Green Revolution is itself based on the most rigorous research. Our objective of a quadrupling of production is not some wish plucked out of thin air, it is based on the work over many years of the Natural Resource Section, here at Cedara, which has developed a computer-linked bio-resource database which tells the enquirer at the touch of a button what the bio-characteristics are of any particular locality in the province, what crops may be successfully grown there and what the potential production values are per crop.

This is the only database of its type on the African continent, and from it, we are able to map the province, showing the different categories of land potential. And it is from that mapping process that we are able to extrapolate with reasonable confidence that the province is producing only about a quarter of its potential.

Very well, we know the potential. But realising it is another matter, and here scientific research continues to play an absolutely pivotal role. My Department operates seven research stations which operate often in partnership with the ARC, the University of Natal, the University of Zululand, the South African Sugar Association and private sector companies. They conduct research into a range of agricultural activities, including livestock and crops (agronomic and horticultural), as well as resources. They provide analytical services and breeding material. The colleges provide short courses to farmers and members of the agricultural supply sector, as well as regular diploma courses for students. I truly believe that in the area of research, my Department is among the leading institutions on the African continent and it makes a contribution that reaches well beyond the borders of this province.

The quality of research and the way it is applied to the practicalities of agriculture is, I believe, the decisive factor in success or failure. We need to develop appropriate technologies based on local resources and the need of our people and communities. We further need to selectively adapt the knowledge we acquire from elsewhere in the world, to make it applicable to local conditions if economically feasible and it is wise to do so. We need to develop systems and technologies that are geared to production for local and international markets and are appropriate to our social and economic needs - labour intensive, where necessary, and low in capital input where capital is scarce, as it is through much of Africa. I believe the research we conduct here in KwaZulu-Natal can serve not just the rest of South Africa but the entire sub-continent, and beyond, where conditions are similar.

INNOVATION

And research is, of course, a continuing process with an emphasis on innovation. For example, we are experimenting by crossbreeding the indigenous Nguni cattle with other breeds to increase milk yields in adverse conditions. We are experimenting by crossbreeding beef breeds with a Belgian breed. We are investigating improved goat management and the possibilities of cashmere production from angora goats.

In the area of crop production, we have been running a Planting Without Ploughing programme which is yielding wonderful results. Maize and dry bean hybrids are producing trebled yields for both commercial and small-scale farmers, the secret being weed-control and fertiliser. One demonstration produced a record 12 tons per hectare of maize grain. I go into some detail here because I know this is the kind of thing that is music to the ears of scientists of the CGIAR. This is the kind of scientifically based technology that I see underpinning our planned Green Revolution, and so successful has PWP been that the sub-directorate involved received recognition very recently in winning the Gold Medal (one of two awards won by this Department) in the Good Governance Awards made by the Premier of this Province, judged by the international consultancy, Price Waterhouse Cooper.

We eagerly harness information technology to our cause. Scientists of this Department are conducting desktop research into crop modelling. Satellite imagery is used to identify such things as soil erosion; total area planted per crop and cattle numbers. This gives us pinpoint accuracy whereas before we relied on extrapolations and sometimes inspired guesswork.

BIO-RESOURCE DIVERSITY

The bio-resource database I mentioned earlier tells us KwaZulu-Natal has an astonishing 590 different bio-resource units, an outcome of latitude, broken topography, prevailing winds and proximity to the Indian Ocean. This has startling implications for agricultural production because it means almost any world crop can be grown somewhere in KwaZulu-Natal. And our computer-linked database makes it possible to work backwards - to identify a world market then find the locality in KwaZulu-Natal where the crop can be successfully grown and processed. I see this as being a key to our planned Green Revolution.

NEW POSSIBILITIES

Innovative research has become our watchword, ladies and gentlemen. Suddenly we are investigating all kinds of agricultural activities which had not been considered before.

Developments in the United States now challenge the conventional wisdom that viticulture is possible only in winter rainfall areas. This means wine production becomes a possibility in the semi-arid north west region of KwaZulu-Natal. It is certainly being investigated and a leading scientist at the University of Natal believes that if positive results are obtained, a wine industry could be established within seven years. Ladies and gentlemen, the province is already a tourism node because of the battlefields of the Anglo/Zulu War, Anglo/Boer War and other conflicts. Winelands would give it an extra dimension and attraction.

We are looking at the cultivation of deciduous fruits in the southern regions of the province, medicinal plants (including those used in African traditional medicine) and plants producing essential oils.

Aquaculture - fish farming - is another activity under investigation, the idea being that fish can be reared in irrigation canals and in plastic-lined ponds. This promises to develop into an important source of protein, and various private sector interests are intensely interested.

As I say, ladies and gentlemen, we are accumulating knowledge all the time. But, as the CGIAR knows very well, the trick is to translate that knowledge into increased productivity. And to achieve that we, as government, have to engage with the farming community and with outside sources of investment.

AGRICULTURAL FORUM

We need to establish partnerships, set up synergies so that the scientific and technical knowledge we accumulate can be transferred to those who stand to benefit from it and so that those with the funding available also become involved.

Last year we in this province formed the KwaZulu-Natal Agricultural Forum, which brings together under one roof as many branches of agriculture as possible: organised agriculture; farmers' associations; commercial agriculture; small-scale growers; non-government organisations; and anybody with an input to make. It gives us the opportunity, as government, to make the results of our research more readily available, to give advice and to draw all players into our projected Green Revolution.

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT TRUST

Then only last month we officially launched the KwaZulu-Natal Agricultural Development Trust, which is a public sector/private sector partnership designed to facilitate investment in agriculture in this province and to serve as a conduit for any international donor funding which might be available.

This I see steering us in a new strategic direction as productive partnerships are forged with overseas governments and with overseas private sector interests. I see this factor providing an impetus in agricultural development which was absent before.

Examples of international partnership which are already in place include joint programmes with the Swaminathan Research Institute of India in eco-technology and sustainable rural programmes; development of dairy practices modelled on the highly successful Anand co-operative system of India; and Australian input to our Land Care programmes.

Ladies and gentlemen, I see my Department, the Agricultural Forum and the Agricultural Development Trust as being like the three legs of a tripod that will bring together government, the farming community and external sources of funding in a dynamic and synergistic way that will make our Green Revolution a reality.

EUROPEAN INTEREST

As I say, interest in the Trust is intense. In a few months, I plan to travel in Europe (as Patron of the Trust) to meet various people in government and in the private sector and discuss investment and funding possibilities in agri-business. I believe our Green Revolution is an idea whose time has come.

XOSHINDLALA

And at this point I must make mention of a programme that runs in parallel with our plans for a Green Revolution, something that corresponds very much with the world-wide food security objectives of CGIAR.

My Department is now into its third year of an emergency Food Security programme designed to alleviate hardship as increasing numbers of migrant workers are retrenched from their employment in the cities and return to their rural homes where resources are severely strained by the ending of cash remittances and by the presence of new mouths to feed.

This programme, known as Xoshindlala or Chase Away Hunger, sets up small, sustainable food production projects, run by the local communities. They include:

Community gardens;
Nurseries, orchards;
Irrigation schemes, hydroponics schemes;
Poultry units;
Small dairies;
Small piggeries;
Livestock grazing and watering schemes; and
Baking clubs.

Hydroponics is a particularly innovative method of production which is becoming increasingly popular, as it can be managed without too much difficulty by the elderly and infirm, as well as by the physically and mentally challenged. I see a big future for hydroponics.

About 800 Xoshindlala projects are up and running across the province, some of them in urban areas as well as rural. Another 400 or so are in the planning stage and there will be much more. The projects so far have about 30 000 participants and 240 000 beneficiaries. There will, of course, be many more as the programme develops.

These developments run in parallel with our planned Green Revolution. Food is being produced where it was not before. Modest cash incomes are being earned where nothing was earned before. I believe Xoshindlala is making a difference for communities which are in real want and it is adding in a small way to the totality of agricultural production in the province too. It would not be possible if it were not based on sound scientific research.

Ladies and gentlemen, I must also briefly mention another vital component of our projected Green Revolution. This is the development of a new category of commercial farmer, as individuals from communities previously disadvantaged are settled in terms of a Land Reform programme. These too will be the beneficiaries of expert extension advice based on the most rigorous research.

Your Majesty, ladies and gentlemen, this is South Africa Day in your week-long deliberations, the rest of which will be in Durban. I wish you a stimulating and informative conference, here as well as in Durban, and I would like to say how honoured I feel that such a distinguished gathering of scientists - the quintessence of world agricultural knowledge - should be here in this auditorium.

In recent months, we in KwaZulu-Natal have been getting an unusual degree of international exposure. We had the Commonwealth Agricultural Conference in Durban; we had the conference of the World Guernsey Association at a venue in the Drakensberg mountains; we had an international soil acidity conference, also in the Drakensberg.

Now we have today's high-calibre gathering. I am most appreciative of the opportunity to convey to such an audience my thoughts on the Green Revolution we plan for KwaZulu-Natal. I hope I have struck some chords and I thank you for your attention.

Contact: Graham Linscott on 082-7895357

Issued by: Office of the MEC for Agriculture and Environmental Affairs, KwaZulu-Natal, 21 May 2001