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26 April 2005

Honourable Speaker
Honourable Premier (In absentia)
Honourable Chairperson and Members of Agricultural Portfolio Committee
Our honoured special guests: Farmers, Corporate Agribusiness, Youth Commission, Youth-In-Agriculture League of Limpopo, Women Farmers of Limpopo, Scientific Organisations, Agricultural Bankers, Strategic Partners, other Agricultural Support Service Providers and Industries and Departmental Staff from across the Province,
Honourable Members of the House

Introduction

I would first like to pay tribute to my predecessor, honourable MEC for Education, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, in many respects. The interactive culture that you have planted among the key stakeholders in the agricultural industry is immense and visible. Many more people and organised formations are taking agriculture in our province more serious. I witnessed these on my District Imbizo’s with agricultural stakeholders in past two months. Farmers of all shapes, sizes and colours are more confident and upright to talk about issues that are considered important in improving their well-being. This culture will assist us in improving and sustaining our communication with our stakeholders for life!

Furthermore, as the Premier reminded us in his State of the Province Address “We call upon all municipalities in the Province and councillors in particular, to emulate this example of community participation and involvement in the delivery of services. Clearly this kind of initiative resonates with the letter and spirit of the Freedom Charter when it says, “the people shall govern”.

Furthermore, we are in the Second Quarter of Freedom Charter Celebrations wherein the focus is: “The people shall share the land and the wealth; and the doors of learning and culture shall be opened to all” During this quarter, that started on 1 April and will end on 31 June 2005, the Limpopo Department will in collaboration with the broader programme managed from the Premier’s Office, embark on a series of mini-forums across the province on land, agribusiness investment, AgriBEE options, agricultural credit, agricultural infrastructure investment, foreign ownership of land and land reform in general. These activities will culminate in a Provincial Mini-Land Summit where all stakeholders will be charting new and sustainable views about how to tackle the land issue in the second decade of our democracy. The date, venue and time for this Provincial Mini-Land Summit will be announced within a week from today.

The culture that Honourable Dr Motsoaledi entrenched will enable my Department to embark on a “Budget for Farmers” approach in managing the challenges of agriculture in this province as from 2006/2007 financial year. Our budget will no longer be informed by so-called “experienced high-ranking officials found in air-conditioned offices” of our Head Office. It will be informed by interactive communication with stakeholders through problem identification, analysis, quantification and costing at the project level or where the problem is prevailing. The principle of subsidiarity (Local is Lekker!) will be upheld at all times in my Department. This place/locality cannot be any other area than the local municipality. My philosophy in managing the challenges that my Department face is based on the principle of “Nothing about us without us!” This is going to be the centre of accountable and quality service delivery in my Department from now on!

Before I indulge in what other programs and processes of the Department will shape up to this year, let me report to this House, Honourable Speaker, about our performance in relation to our targets deliverables for the previous year. In 2003/2004 our total adjusted appropriated budget was R804.6 million and we utilised R786.4 million. This is equivalent to 97.74% utilisation. In 2004/2005 our budget was R905 million and our projected expenditure is R818 million leaving about R87 million unused and returned to Provincial Treasury. This is equivalent to 90.4% utilisation. Year on year performance shows that we dropped by 7.5%. This is not improvement!

The biggest under-spending in the 2004/2005 financial year is found in Conditional Grants for Farmer Support with 41.16% spent and Infrastructure spending in the Revitalisation of Smallholder Irrigation Schemes with only 27.55% spent. The above scenario is a result of amongst others, staff incapacity, bad planning and lack of co-ordination with municipalities, undefined procedures, lack of devolution of responsibilities to districts and municipality levels and in some cases, fear by officials to take decisions to solve farmers problems at hand and the little attention paid to commercial farmers and new black Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD) farmers. The capacity and competency issues raised by the President and the Premier in their Nation and Province’s Addresses, respectively as well as the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs in her Budget Speech on 7 April 2005 is evident in this case.

All the three policy direction speeches/addresses focused incisively on the management capacity and the technical skills and competencies of our government officials to deliver quality and effective service delivery to our people. I would want to bring closer the issue of capacity and competency in my Department by highlighting issues that inhibit my Department to spend an acceptable performance target of 97% of its budget.

Corporate Services of the Department plays a crucial role in building that capacity and efficiency of our support services. As in many organisations, the major functions of Corporate Services include human resource management and development, logistical services, transformation services, government information technology, risk and security management.

Human Resource Management

Human resource management has an important role in building the capacity of the Department to deliver mandated services. The major challenge that has limited the capacity of the Department to deliver the required services to the clients over the years has been the lack of adequate number of posts, especially at levels of Senior Management Services (SMS). The Department was extremely under-managed. The development and approval of the new organogram early this year, which is better informed by the magnitude and level of services to be rendered by the Department is therefore an important achievement towards rectifying the capacity and competency issues. The Department has also, during the 2004/05 financial year, appointed the Head of Department. Also, the Department has evaluated the posts and subsequently appointed two general managers, one for District Services and the other for Land and Agrarian Reform, all of them being competent and committed young women. A total of ten senior managers were also appointed. Three are responsible for Financial Services, one for Land and Restitution, one for Transformation Services, one for Communication, one for Labour Relations, one for Human Resource Management, one for Government Information Technology (GITO) and one for Bohlabela District.

It is clear that the nature and level of staff that the Department lacked is such that it would be difficult, if not impossible for the organisation to deliver to the required mandate. The extent of under performance compared to the plans of the Department showed itself through the level of under-utilisation of planned resources, especially financial resources. The under-spending that the Department realised is not a result of under-payments of salaries due to under-staffing alone. It is also a result of certain critical services not having been delivered due to lack of the staff, and competent staff for that matter. The appointment of the staff as presented here goes a long way in building the capacity of the Department to deliver the planned services.

While building the capacity of the Department through appointments of new required staff is important, Human Resource Development also carries the responsibility of ensuring rightsizing of the Department. The Department had, at the beginning of the 2004/5 financial year, a total of 2 224 staff in excess, and to date the excess staff is 1 469. This is almost 34% decrease in excess staff. Negotiations were entered into with other provincial and national departments who absorbed some of the excess staff to their vacant posts. This strategy will continue even in the coming years.

The major challenge when dealing with excess staff is that the majority of them are not people with technical and/or tertiary certificates. These are unskilled personnel, making them very difficult to absorb into vacant posts requiring specific levels of literacy and skills. The Department plans to identify those that are still trainable and take them on adult basic education and training (ABET) and some skills programme during 2005/06. Negotiations with other departments with vacant posts will continue, be it national or provincial departments as well as municipalities. Potential for small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) establishment also exists.

Human Resource Development

The essence of human resource development for agriculture cannot be overemphasised. In his State of the Nation address, the President indicated that a lot of work has to be done to raise the skills levels of our people.

As mentioned by the President, the government has approved a new National Skills Development Strategy for the period 2005–2010. Some R21.9 billion over the next five years will be allocated to fund this strategy, which will include improved co-operation between the sector education and training authorities (SETAs) on one hand and the Further Education and Training (FET) colleges and institutions of higher education on the other.

The views of the President were echoed by our Premier who, in his State of the Province Address, identified lack of availability of appropriate and competent skills as a major threat which had the potential to undermine and derail all efforts and endeavours to implement the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS). The Premier actually went on to say we need a coherent and inclusive human resource development strategy to build adequate human resources for the future of the province. This is clearly critical for the Economic Cluster.

In terms of the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS, 2001), meaningful skills development should seek to improve skills throughout the country so as to improve national productivity and competitiveness while at the same time addressing inequalities and exclusivity in the country. The PGDS for Limpopo states, on the other hand that the provincial HRD Strategy should target the skills needs of the agriculture and construction sectors as priorities, because these sectors have the highest employment coefficients by a significant margin. This means that more jobs are created by a given expansion in agriculture and construction than in any other sector. It is these issues that guide the implementation of human resource development programmes, taking into consideration the sub-sectors identified as important by the Premier in his State of the Province Address, viz. horticulture, animal production (both red and white meat) and agro-processing.

Staff Training

In an effort to build the internal capacity of the Department to deliver services, the Department has given our staff opportunities to further their studies through a departmental bursary scheme. In 2004/05 alone, 100 bursaries were awarded to the staff of the Department to the value of R600 000.

The bursaries were in the fields of financial management (12), strategic management (8), leadership (8), human resource management (10), project management (12), computer science (12), risk management (12), service delivery (8), transformation (8) and record management (10). The affordability of the studies is a result of the fact that they are predominantly part-time, hence the Department does not have to pay a lot of fees for accommodation and meals.

The main challenges encountered include staff who get the bursaries but fail to secure admission to relevant institution of learning. Furthermore, the Department is finalising new qualifying criteria for post-graduate studies to include a condition where all those that we support must base their thesis, dissertations and research projects on specific project areas that have persistent constraints. The Department wants to make sure that problem solving techniques are established and applied during the period of study and not after completion. This condition will ensure relevancy of post-graduate support and for the researchers to devise solutions to practical problems met by farmers at the project level.

Farmer Training

The Department is also mindful of the need for our farmers to become competitive and stand for themselves in this world of competitiveness and globalisation. A total of 1 674 farmers from 30 irrigation schemes were trained on various issues of crop production which include water management, scheme management, financial management and best practices of crop production, focusing on vegetables and field crops. An additional 1 500 will be trained during 2005/06 at an investment value of R3.7 million.

While 250 farmers from irrigation schemes were targeted for training in advanced cotton production, 85 were prioritised in line with the stages of revitalisation of the schemes and those (85) were trained. An additional 100 farmers will be trained in 2005/06 at a cost of R250 000. An additional 1 100 small holder farmers outside irrigation schemes were trained on various issues of crop and animal husbandry, and those included vegetable production, broiler production, project management, fertiliser use and management, pig production, nursery and veld management.

Some 1 000 smaller holder farmers will be trained during 2005/06 for R2.5 million. These training courses were conducted by our two colleges of agriculture, Madzivhandila and Tompi Seleka, and hence no major costs in addition to the normal budgets for the institutions were incurred.

Youth In Agriculture Training

The Department believe that “You Invest In Youth, You Invest In The Future”. The profile and image of agriculture has not been fully promoted among our young generation and the Department wants to change that in this Province. Some 74 bursaries were awarded in the 2004/05 financial year to youths who passed grade 12. The bursaries were awarded in the fields of Veterinary Science (12), Hydrology (9), Agricultural Engineering (16), Entomology (7), Aquaculture (1), Pasture Science (2), Agronomy (2), Agricultural Economics (4), Animal Science (3), Horticulture (4) and Soil Science (14). These bursaries are valued at R2.3 million. The value of the bursaries includes fees, accommodation, books and meals.

The Department has awarded 50 new bursaries in 2005/06. In order to attract good and high performing youth, arrangements will be made with the Department of Education for our staff to visit schools for popularising our bursary scheme in this financial year. Youths will be encouraged to secure admission early to learning institutions to be considered for awards of bursaries. Visits will be undertaken to tertiary learning institutions to regularly monitor the performance of our bursars and were necessary, to give them necessary support in time.

On learner-ships, in 2004/05, some 120 youths were trained in Animal Husbandry (60) and Horticulture (60) at R15000 each. That amounted to R1.8 million. An additional 100 youths will be trained during 2005/06. Although the training was provided by our two colleges of agriculture, the Primary Agricultural Education and Training Authority (PAETA) provided the funding, which included the payments of allowances to the learners. There is no major challenge with the implementation of the learner-ship programme. Depending on the number to be allocated by PAETA, the Department plans to conduct learnerships for an additional 120 learners during 2005/06.

Most of the learners come from farms and they go back after completing the programme while others continue to look for jobs with the assistance of the Department were possible.

For internships, some 191 unemployed graduates were appointed for the financial year 2004/05. This one year contract employment is to give the unemployed graduates some work experience, thereby increasing their chances of getting permanently absorbed in the job market. The interns were appointed in fields such as animal production, horticulture, agronomy, soil science, agricultural economics, aquaculture, animal health, human resource management and finance.

Each intern receives a stipend of R1500 per month to cover incidentals and travel. This is equivalent to R18 000 per intern per annum, translating into R3.4 million for the 191 interns per annum. Major challenges with the internship programme include lack of supervisory capacity, lack of availability of proper places for placements for some interns compounded by lack of accommodation at some of the favourable placement sites. Shortage of some working facilities such as office space, transport and computers also presents challenges. Honourable Speaker, these interns are potential facilitators in RESIS.

About interns 234 are being placed for 2005/06 and this will cost the Department a total of R4.2 million for all the interns for the 12-month contract period. The interns are to start initiation into the working environment on 1 April 2005. We are going to negotiate with some of our stake-holders in the sector to accept some of the interns for placement in their enterprises. We decided to increase the number of interns in line with the expansion in our organisational establishment (an equivalent of 5% of the establishment), but also in response to the huge need for the internship programme by the sector. If we are to attract more youths into agriculture, we would be investing in future farmers who should be candidates for LRAD, AgriBEE, facilitators in RESIS, Community Development Workers at project levels and other empowerment initiatives of this democratic government.

At this moment, Honourable Speaker, I would like to inform the House that some 13 youths were placed on a four-month mentorship programme in this past year, 12 on the farm of Mr Nesane in Nwanedi for tomato production programme and one on the farm of Mr Rakgase at Northam for livestock (red meat). The total cost of this programme was R31 200. I would like to take this opportunity to thank these two farmers and encourage them to open their hearts for more interns in the future. The interns have been highly motivated and are already managing their small farms already. I wish to emphasise the fact that Messrs Nesane and Rakgase did not charge the Department anything for their service and yet they did their best to equip the youths with agricultural skills. Their efforts are very highly appreciated. It is from this background that I call upon all successful commercial farmers, black and white to open their farms for the mentorship programme in a quest to broaden access of these young ones to the industry on time.

Training on mentorship programme is targeted at beneficiaries of the land reform programme and hence we shall continue during 2005/06 to identify such beneficiaries and to train them accordingly. For the training interventions to be possible, the Department, together with its two colleges, Tompi Seleka and Madzivhandila, enjoyed the support of partners such as Cotton South Africa and PAETA, in addition to our selfless farmers who care about the future of our country, and our deep appreciation is extended to these partners.

It is opportune for me at this point, to mention that the Department has decided, in line with the agricultural skills needs of our sector, to convert the two colleges of agriculture, Madzivhandila and Tompi Seleka, to Farmer Centres of Excellence where our farmers shall regularly go for training. From 1 April 2005, these Farmer Centres of Excellence will concentrate on farmer capacity building along the commodity groups and through the value-chain. The Department has already secured some limited funding from the European Union (Flemish Government) for this project. A reputable service provider will be appointed to ensure that the value-chain approach to market and marketing challenges at all our irrigation schemes and the dry-land is appropriately dealt with.

In 2005/06, we will continue to implement the provincial Batho Pele strategy. A department-based Service Excellence Award will also be initiated during this financial year to encourage staff to take cognisance of the value of Batho Pele principles.

Effective and efficient service delivery demands that the Department start to be serious about electronic communication and minimising the use of paper. This should ultimately lead to e-government. The main challenges encountered in e-connectivity are the lack of data line connectivity at district offices, problems of government wide area network (WAN) and computer literacy among some officers to optimise the working tools at their disposal. In this regard the Department will in 2004/05 upgrade the total network infrastructure at Head Office, install new improved file server and e-mail server and upgrade the network at district and local municipality offices.

An intensive problem-solving and targeted training is being finalised and the two Farmer Centres of Excellence will be the focus areas for capacity building in effective use of the electronic tools. Our plans for 2005/06 are to get connectivity to all sub-district offices and to introduce electronic systems for transformation of manual systems into electronic services. The Department has since rectified this incapacity by embarking on a rigorous skills enhancement, structured training in problem solving techniques and tools such as research methodologies, spread sheets, business planning, multiple/matrix project management, agribusiness value chain analysis, agri-business performance analysis and human resources skills audit. The first level of intervention will be with effect from 1 April 2005.

To overhaul Local Municipality Agricultural Management, the Department has reviewed and designed new job requirements that reflect the professional quality, capacities and technical competency required to manage agriculture at this critical level. These positions have been advertised in local and national news papers in the part two weeks for competent candidates to apply. The second level will be the district management level where already the job contents relating to job requirements and responsibilities have been completed. Furthermore, the Department’s service delivery is going to be based on four key tenets, namely: municipality focus, commodity-based, project-based and value chain analysis approach.

This will enable the Department to make sure that the Department does not turn policemen into accountants nor try to force animal scientists to be horticulturist. Our professional competencies and skills audit will enable the Department to restructure job responsibilities vertically and horizontally. This then, will enable the Department to evaluate its activities and thus utilise its budget resources accordingly to achieve the Mandate of the Electorate. The philosophy of “Nothing about us without us” will of course apply consistently.

Honourable Speaker, I have dealt with the incapacities and remedial actions of my Department extensively to demonstrate our commitment to improved performance and better service delivery for our clients in the coming years. Now I would like to report on the programme performance and indicate our future plans in transforming “From farming to agricultural industrial development”.

Honourable Speaker, Farming is a Business! This must be emphasised, Farming is a Business and NOT a way of life as our forefathers used to do it. This is mentioned against the backdrop of globalisation and competitiveness that is a challenge to all of us being a small-scale, subsistence, emerging or a commercial agribusiness entrepreneur. Honourable Members, this means that every rand that we invest in this sector must yield returns within reasonable time. Yielding returns must be measurable through profits and re-investment levels back into the sector by the entrepreneurs. If we fail to sustain that, agriculture can easily become unappealing to new and the young farmers and entrepreneurs we are striving to encourage and establish.

ARDC Projects

Honourable Speaker, the performance of Zebediela Citrus Estate is testimony to all. The Bjatladi Community is on its way to international best practice in citrus production. Our partnership formula is yielding results and we will continue to review and perfect it with each project that requires sustainable settlement. All AEDC projects will be handed over to the rightful owners by 31 March 2006 as the ARDC will be totally closed by 31 December 2005.

Revitalisation of Smallholder Irrigation Schemes- RESIS

Our RESIS Programme was born last year and is rapidly developing major capacity for delivery. Our province has the largest number of smallholder schemes in the country and we have irrigation infrastructure with a replacement value of R4 billion that has not been properly managed and utilised for some time.

But the Department is not merely rehabilitating or fixing up broken infrastructure – it is revitalising – that is, a comprehensive programme to:

* Re-structure, train and capacitate the smallholder farmers to run and manage their schemes profitably and in a sustainable way.
* Evolving institutional formations to ensure management sustainability.
* It is about transformation – away from the top-down approaches of the past, to self-management and the user-pays principles, which is the policy of this democratic government.
* It also includes investment in water-saving technology to the crop to improve farmer competitiveness and thus productivity.

The Department is targeting 126 irrigation schemes in five years with:

* 16 000 farming families on 20 000 hectares of irrigation.
* However, it is expected that the impact will engulf the lives of some 60 000 households in the rural areas.
* RESIS also provides for access roads, stock watering and rainwater harvesting facilities to enable households to use water for economic activities – even in their own backyards.

Our objective is to help change the face of rural Limpopo to be a good place to live and work in for all our citizens. We are rooting out poverty by providing permanent self-employment to people on their own land. People need to have more control over their daily lives and be able to confidently send their children to school and out into the world.

We are taking our blinkers off and looking at opportunities for collaboration between the different sectors of the economy to generate stable jobs, food and income for rural people. We are exploring what products agriculture can produce for the mining sector, and how the mines can provide a local market for farmers, instead of importing from other far flung areas or across our borders.

Water scarcity is a major concern and a fact of life in our Province. Therefore, the Department is placing a lot of emphasis on efficient and effective water delivery and use. Our development planning must reflect this reality. The Department will have to look for efficient water-saving technology and high-value low-water-use crops when revitalising these irrigation schemes. The “More Crop More Profit per Drop” slogan for RESIS will be experienced in Bohlabela and Sekhukhune Districts first this year. The Department will adjudicate the appointment of irrigation technology manufacturing companies to install bulk water supply and in-field water-saving irrigation technology as part of our efforts to accelerate delivery and conserve water for efficient utilisation for more profit. The Department will invest on in-field irrigation technology systems in both Bohlabela and Sekhukhune on about 1 200 hectares this year. About 500ha along the Oliphants River will be fully operational by September this year.

Honourable Speaker, I have indicated earlier that Farming is a Business. This approach will apply to all irrigation schemes being revitalised. The following principles will apply in providing framework for sustainability of these schemes, namely: the user-pays principle, promoting land rentals, contract farming to secure markets, commodity approach to project development and utilising local manpower for irrigation system installation. An in-field irrigation investment policy is being finalised and will be part of the facilitation process in all RESIS, LRAD and Restitution projects.

Market access and value-adding are cornerstones of a successful agriculture and the Department has structured the implementation of RESIS to tap into the special expertise of the different programmes within the Department.
We will partner with private sector agencies (commodity traders, seed manufacturing companies, LADEP, Ralman Agribusiness, Urban Farmers Fresh Produce Marketing Agency and Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market) to ensure marketing of products from the revitalised irrigation schemes is no longer an issue.

The Department has already started activities on 46 irrigation schemes and will be introducing at least another 35 schemes this year. We have allowed ourselves a cycle of four years for each scheme and most of the current ones have had only six months or less so far. This year a major amount of infrastructure work will be done. Bohlabela and Sekhukhune districts as Presidential Nodes and the driest districts will receive highest priority in investment and execution. The Department targets Bohlabela and Sekhukhune irrigation schemes to be completed in infrastructure investment in the next two financial years.

The Department has now appointed the engineering teams, facilitation teams, training teams and economics and farming systems teams – all ready to support the schemes in their journey to economic freedom. The RESIS programme will be completed in 2010 and has a projected total budget of R1.08bn. As a Flagship Project, it will change the face and essence of farming in Limpopo forever! It will certainly live up to our motto “From farming to industrial development” The Youth of Limpopo will champion this change!

Extension Advisory Services

Over and above the call by our Honourable Premier to take services to the people, there exist numerous policy pronouncements that directly reiterate the need to beef up our service delivery efforts at district and local municipal level. Extension advisory service is one such function that has as its primary area of operation at the ward, village and local municipal level. Let me take a moment to situate this function within the wider pool of policy pronouncements:

The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations made a commitment to cut by half the 800 million starving people by the year 2015. Unfortunately, in sub-Saharan Africa the number of starving people has increased alarmingly from 168 million in 1990/92 to 202 million in 1999/2001. This means that at the current rate of development, the 2015 Challenge will only be realised by the year 2050. There is a need to accelerate economic growth efforts.

The Mellor Poverty & Prosperity Report that Honourable MEC, Dr Motsoaledi, referred to in his 2004/05 budget speech argues that rural and agricultural growth brings a sharp decline in poverty through increased farm production, more employment, and lower food prices. Thus, investment in rural and agricultural development presents one of the best options for sustainable poverty reduction formulae.

The 2004 Growth and Development Strategy (LPGDS) states that the issue of food security in agriculture should be addressed within the value chain.

The 2003 National Spatial Development Perspective (NSDP) puts forward mechanisms aimed at ensuring better alignment between infrastructure investment and development programmes and should inform the respective development plans of local and provincial government, namely Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) and Provincial Growth and Development Strategies (PGDS). NSDP is designed to act as an indicative planning tool and should be used as an instrument for policy co-ordination.

In terms of specific agricultural policy pronouncements the 2003 National Agricultural Sector Plan on Agriculture states that:

* The department will maintain formal liaison with organised agriculture, civil society, national and provincial departments and other structures;
* Government agricultural programmes will be scientifically and practically planned and executed in consultation with farmers and other stake-holders;
* Specialised agricultural support services will be rendered to farmers participating in land-reform programmes. Special attention will be given to upgrade the agricultural skills of these farmers;
* Priority will be given to policies and strategies to identify and protect the high potential agricultural natural resources (especially soil, grazing and water) of the Province;
* The image of agriculture as a career and business opportunity will be promoted, particularly in education institutions;
* Integrated rural development will be encouraged in the design and implementation of agricultural development strategies and systems;
* The needs of farmers, specifically new entrants and small-scale farmers, will be met through the reorientation and training of trainers, extension and research workers;
* Agricultural practices will be continually developed, adapted and applied in their local context, taking account of the highly variable climate and limited agricultural
* CASP and MAFISA will provide an enabling mechanism to accelerate agricultural development

However, there are generic constraints that limit the capacity of advisory services to apply these pronouncements for farmer development and these include:

* Inadequate technical capacity of the extension staff to provide appropriate information to farmers.
* Inadequate planning and lack of management systems to enable officers to work productively with the farmers.
* Too much reliance on consultancy facilitation with minimal institutionalisation of lessons learnt from such consultancies.
* Unco-ordinated development support by agencies.
* Lack of capacity and insight to identify local time-tested farming technology solutions and innovation.
* No succession planning for both officers and farmers to better deal with new challenges and innovations.

The Department is implementing as of this year, changes that will turn around the tide of negative discourse about the sector. We have identified four Centres of Excellence consistent with the Presidential Nodal Points, namely Maruleng, Thulamela, Tompi Seleka and Blouberg (Ga-Kibi/Aganang) as the localities for stellar performance.

In these four areas, all opportunities for economic growth and job creation will be explored and all challenges will be addressed in the best possible manner. Proposed measures to start the process will include:

1. Establishment and alignment of physical and financial services within the value-chain and commodity approach framework
2. Allocation of human resources in line with specific commodity groupings.
3. Development, communication, and implementation of district/local development plans
4. Establishment of the co-operatives and commodity associations.
5. Strengthening of the farmer formations to articulate their demand.
6. Development and implementation of a broad-based succession plans to guarantee management and productivity continuity.

For extension advisory services in particular the proposed improvement measures will include, among others, the development of:

* Extension strategies and systems appropriate to farm demands.
* Massive re-orientation of extension personnel in Participatory Extension Approaches.
* A proactive and change management program to improve the response system of officers to the needs of the farmers.
* An expectation for each official to find innovative solutions to service delivery issues within their own contexts.
* Development a communication strategy for technology transfer and adoption targeting rural radio programs, and print media.
* Strengthening the linkages between research and extension and the farming community through On- Field Research.

All district managers are expected to develop, communicate and implement their District Development Plans with all major stakeholders’ that is, the municipalities, the farmers, the communities, the traditional leaders, other government departments, specific commodity groupings, etc for transparent accountability. They are expected to facilitate the development and management of agricultural support systems for all categories of farmers, especially individual entrepreneurs likely to accelerate our mandate to create jobs and generate wealth. Development of broad-based succession plans for extension and advisory service management capacity at all levels is mandatory in view of the glaring risk of losing experienced and highly skilled people to retirement and similar realities. We intend to stand on the pillars of CASP, on MAFISA, on LAND CARE, on RESIS, on AgriBEE and on LRAD in our endeavour to create a new cohort of entrepreneurs in Agriculture.

Research

The major parts of the Limpopo province are prone to frequent drought and most of the farming activities by the small-scale farmers is dependent on rain. Faced with that scenario the research division is constantly focused on its search for appropriate draught tolerant crops and new farming technologies, which best minimise the effect drought. The following are some of the trials, which are strategic in an effort to address the problem

Cactus pear project: this is one of the well-known draught tolerant crops which can be used for both animal and people feed. The province or the Department hosts one the largest germplasm bank of cactus pear in the whole world. A large volume of information this crop exists in the province. Presently efforts are being made to promote this crop amongst small-scale farmers through planting of demonstrations in the Sekhukhune district.

The Department of Agriculture is one of several National Agricultural Research and Extension (NARES) institutions identified to actively participate in the CGIAR Challenge Programme on Water and Food project (CPWF), which is going to start this year. The programme secured US$1.9 billion to harness the expert skills from researchers in Africa and elsewhere in addressing Water for Food Challenges that the Limpopo River Basin faces. The project aims to increase food security and income in the Limpopo River Basin through integrated crop, water and soil fertility options and private-public partnerships. The biggest challenge to be addressed by this project is how farmers can produce “More Food per Drop of Water”. Limpopo will work in partnership with our local Universities, LIMPAST, Progress Milling, and the ARC to implement this programme.

Internal capacity will be developed during the course of implementation of this program by training six students at Masters level on Water Resource Management.

Access to markets is one of the biggest challenges of the smallholder farmers in the Province. This is also increased by the failure or inability of the smallholder farmers to produce according to the demands of the market specifications, either through poverty or lack of information.

The Department will be embarking on a collaborative project with an Australian organisation called ACIAR in an effort to address the issue market specifications. The project will be dealing with the development of emerging farmer crop-livestock systems in our Province. One of the main objectives of this project is to develop and promote a range of forage and veld management strategies that assist emerging farmers to match the market specifications for cattle in Limpopo province- essentially develop economic feed year plans.

The provincial initiatives of promoting OPV maize seed production in collaboration with both international and national organisations such as CIMMYT, ARC and SANSOR is gathering momentum. This Seed Multiplication project currently implemented in Vhembe, Capricorn and Sekhukhune is expanding with 108ha of land under Maize Seed Production. During the past season 14 230 kg of ZM521 maize seed has been cleaned, treated and packaged by small-scale farmers. In the past year the farmers in Vhembe and Capricorn established a Service Co-operative for Seed Growers Associations that now has 750 members. They successfully formed partnership with YEBO Co-operative, which will assist in the establishment of a provincial seed association as well as the registration of such into a fully fledged seed co-operative. This year will also see the registration of one or two OPV varieties as farmer preferred varieties. Such registration opens the doors for the small-scale seed growers to grow and market the seed legally within the country and outside the borders of the Republic of South Africa. This is the first project of its kind in Southern African Development Community (SADC) for smallholder farmers to produce seed in their respective communities. Efforts are under way to secure royalties for the farmers along the framework of “Bo seka bo e ja”. The wealth of this project should accrue to the people who create is!

It is our intention this year to fast-tract this initiative by helping the farmers complete the registration of the seed co-operative, to scale-up and establish three more seed processing centres/depots in Vhembe and one in Capricorn. Government buildings to be used for this purpose have already been identified for reconstruction and equipping as seed processing centres. R550 000 has been earmarked for this purpose.

Participatory Extension Approaches

The BASED/PEA that was reported on last year continue to change the face of extension advisory services in Vhembe, Capricorn, Mopani, Bohlabela, and Sekhukhune districts. This is a project born out of our relationship with the German Technical Agency, which is now fully managed by us in Limpopo. It is an approach designed to train and capacity officer and farmers alike in the utilisation of Participatory Approaches for service delivery. In other words it is the embodiment of the principle “Nothing about us without us” in development planning.

In this programme we surpassed our commitments as presented here last year in that the BASED team managed to train a 154 Extension Officers in this Participatory Methodology. Specifically, extension officers were trained in the following technical areas:

* 100 in Soil Fertility Management,
* 93 in Soil and Water Conservation
* 67 in Small Scale Seed production Multiplication and
* 41 in Livestock
* 23 Extension Officer trained in HIV/AID for mainstreaming of Extension response to affected farmers and households.

We all know the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS in the Second Economy. In the agricultural sector in particular, we stand to lose farm productivity as farmers, officers and farm workers become too weak to work the lands. A case study is being developed through two pilot villages at Ga Mogano and Mulodi in Capricorn and Vhembe District to reflect on best strategies to combat the pandemic.

It is our intention Honourable Members, to scale up PEA in all districts. There still remain 510 Extension Officers who needs to be trained on participatory planning. A private entity called NovAfrica, a direct product of BASED, will over the next nine months provide PEA re-orientation training to the 510 officers at the tune of R1.02 million. Preliminary Accreditation of PEA in the Local Government SETA was obtained for graduates from this training program.

Despite the visible impact of this approach in enhancing service delivery, we still have to deal with trained officers whose commitment to the implement PEA in their wards, villages remain wanting. Likewise, municipal managers who show no interest in this critical process stand to be subjected to our corrective measures. This is no thumb sucked statement. An impact assessment of the PEA projects conducted towards the tail end of 2004 in all five districts revealed problems of poor communication by municipal managers to frontline staff about the process and poor mobilisations of farmers in villages were Extension Officers are not committed to implementing PEA. We do not expect to experience these problems henceforth as Managers and Officers are required to include PEA in their Performance Instrument for 2005/06.

The Commodity Business Model

The Department of Agriculture has adopted four main approaches to deliver its mandate.

These are:

* Municipality focused and participatory;
* Commodity-based,
* Value chain analysis and,
* Project-based.

To this effect consultative processes are under way where LDA engages the local and district municipalities for collaborative planning to basically walk the IDP talk. At the same time, the Limpopo Tomato Growers Association (LTGA) self-identified as the first commodity based group to test our commodity based approach. Since January this year, consultation meetings were held with LTGA members to discuss the RALMAN Agribusiness model.

I am pleased to report that members of this commodity group (508 in all) hailed the model as possible solution to their marketing and production challenges and willingly took up the challenge to implement the model. Two months ago, Honourable Speaker, nine (members of the LTGA have visited Johannesburg and Zimbabwe to assess for themselves the merits and demerits of the Ralmal AgriBusiness Model. Progress on this project will be shared as this new process unfolds.

PRIDE in Sekhukhune

The Participatory Rural Integrated Development (PRIDE) project is a Technical Co-operation Project by Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA). Implemented through eight pilot projects at community level, PRIDE aims to develop economically and socially active rural communities responsible for their own development. The project operates on three basic concepts:

* Money in Pocket: Generate unique economic activities to promote self-reliance
* Pride in Heart: Ensure people participation to build ownership and self-confidence
* Green in Eyes: Recover the ecological balance to secure resources for future generations.

One of my first interactions with our partners and farmers in Agriculture was with the PRIDE projects at the occasion of their mid-term review and site visits. It is one of the models that have great potential for our people on small-scale integrated farming, natural resource management, processing and marketing. Build into the PRIDE model is an outreach strategy that draws attention to agriculture of people far removed from farming activities—the youth in schools, at pension points, etc, who are attracted to their communication truck. We have acknowledged, Honourable Speaker, our limitation when it comes to explaining ourselves and our functions to others outside the Department. The PRIDE media cart initiatives presents one such option to breaking the cycle of dissociations of our young people in the sector. With the support of our technical partners, we intend to expand those aspects of the project that works, to our Centres of Excellence.

Food Security and Poverty Eradication

I will now report on our departmental efforts to contribute towards combating poverty in the province in ensuring that the rural communities have access to food.

Egg Production

About 3 030 units of 36 layers have been distributed to households for egg production at a total value of R4.5 million. This brings total of families distributed since the start of the program in 2003 to 5 595 and a total investment value of R8.4 million.

For 2006/07 the Department will supply a further 4 405 households at a cost of R6.6 million. The Department will support even further those promising entrepreneur arising from this program to assist them to graduate into serious agribusiness levels.

The supply of egg layers is quite limited and this limits the number of units the Department can distribute. This shortage indicates there is a business opportunity for large-scale production of egg layers in the province and the AgriBEE framework will be used to establish a project. The Department will provide support to establish a layer production facility.

Fish Production

Honourable Speaker, this house reported last year that 290 fishponds were distributed. This year we have added new 400 ponds with 100 fingerlings per household. The project has so far cost the Department about R1.7 million. This programme is limited to areas where there is water supply. A study carried out by Rhodes University for Water Research Commission indicates that Limpopo has a potential to develop rural fish farming using existing water bodies in the province. We are developing a plan to be launched in June 2005 to exploit this potential to develop young entrepreneurs in aquaculture.

Homestead Vegetable Production

About 2 900 vegetable kits have been ordered for households who have access to domestic water. Rainwater harvesting initiatives of different kinds are supported.

The communities in Athol–Bohlabela district have developed 110 ground dams for harvesting rainwater. About 1500 water tanks to collect rainwater will be constructed in this year and this will create 150 short terms jobs and incomes valued at R22 500. These structures will be coupled with supply of the seed packs to ensure vegetable production at household level and thus good nutrition.

Milk Production

In the previous financial year 28 heifers have been distributed to households. The income derived ranges from R400 to R600 per month depending on the production and consumption level of individual households. Production levels of 10 to 15 litres of milk per cow per day are reached where supplementary feeding is maintained. About 146 heifers and 12 bulls have been purchased at a value of R500 000 for this program. They will be distributed when they are ready for calving.

Micro Enterprises

The infrastructure development on the first 30 projects is almost complete some have started producing some may have delays of the electricity connection. A further 60 have are at various stages of infrastructure development but should be complete in this new financial year. These projects are mostly poultry and vegetable production projects.

It should be noted here, Honourable Speaker, that all Food Security and Poverty Alleviation projects within the Department will be evaluated during the first semester of our new financial year to ascertain their sustainability. Financial, commercial, social and economic indicators will be interrogated.

Partnership with Donor Agencies GTZ BASED – Seed Multiplication

Smallholder farmers in Vhembe and Capricon districts have for the first time in the province produced 14,2 tons of certified drought tolerant maize seed from their land.

They have registered Seed Growers Association. My Department will support them both technical support and infrastructure to house the association activities. Other smallholder farmers have started in Sekhukhune with sorghum seed production. Production o dry bean seed in collaboration with National Dry Beans Organisation and ARC has started. Income levels are higher for seed production than normal edible grain. This programme generates more income for producers as well as promotes seed security among smallholder farmers. Three community groups of HIV and AIDS affected people including those of Takalani and Nana have produced 18 tons of quality protein maize. Some have been milled and the rest kept for seed.

Finnish – Limpopo Agricultural Development Program (LADEP)

This partnership program started in 2001 with the purpose of improving household livelihoods through development of micro enterprises. Twenty-eight micro enterprises with 867 participants, integrated and diversified are under development. Five projects are complete and producing and the remaining projects infrastructure is nearly complete and will be producing by June 2005.

Comprehensive Agricultural Support Program (CASP)

This programme is a national effort of supporting provincial agricultural sector departments in providing the most needed support in the implementing agricultural development beyond their allocated budget. It is part of the DORA allocated funds.

This province was allocated in R33,428 million for the development of Livestock and home-based food production infrastructure. By end of January 2005 the livestock infrastructure stood as follows.

* 24 of 51 dipping tanks were complete
* 67 of 85 crush pens were complete.
* 6 livestock mobile scales have been supplied.
* 12 mobile crush pens for animal handling
* 96.1 km of fence has been completed.
* 26 boreholes for stock watering are being equipped.

We have had a very slow start in implementing the programs funded under the CASP hence the low utilisation levels (41.16%) but we are improving our delivery strategy and systems to ensure that delivery is accelerated from 1 April 2005.

Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Control

The outbreak of FMD in Mopani District, which started on 26 June 2004 in Ba-Phalaborwa municipality and spread to Giyani municipality, was brought under control. About 79 000 cattle were at risk, the majority of which were in the communal areas. These animals were vaccinated three times until the outbreak was brought under control. The campaign was mounted with the support of the SANDF, SAPS, Disaster Management and Traffic, was finally called off at the end of January 2005. The affected areas were finally declared free of FMD on 19 February 2005. Thanks to all the team players of this campaign, especially the local communities and the farmers.

The visible war against this terrible disease is over but the threat remains. We are currently reviewing and strengthening our disease risk management measures and shall consult with all affected stakeholders and partners to make this a success. We shall need the participation of all the farmer formations, communities, business people and organs of state to manage this threat. No one of us can win this war alone. No other party can stand on the fence just to criticise and hope that this will bring meaningful results, we all must play as a team if this province and country should win.

Land Reform

The fruits for secondment of staff to the Restitution Commission have started to bear. With Restitution being the key programme to unlocking agricultural development on several departmental projects, e.g. RESIS, LRAD and AgriBEE, speedy settlement cannot be overemphasised.

During this time last year, only 55 937 hectares of land had been redistributed through restitution. To date, a total of 102 992 hectares had been delivered. This has almost doubled the previous year’s delivery. It should be noted at this point that the President has extended the rural restitution settlement date to 31 December 2005, making us confident that the settlement of all rural claims would be realised.

In order to improve on the sustainability of projects, more developmental/settlement models will be interrogated with the relevant stakeholders and implemented along with the new owners of land under Restitution. The models will present creative alternatives to outright purchase and accommodate the President’s announcement for financial resources availability over a three-year circle.

The Mamahlola project had featured a lot both on the print and electronic media in the past year. This indeed had not been a simple project to deal with, having had to obtain a court judgment for government to take over as judicial administrator in order to rescue the farms from imminent liquidation.

The challenges and lessons learned (settlement without proper models and capacity; poor integration amongst government departments; greed and self-enrichment by project leadership; etc) have made us wiser and more determined.

Finalisation of the Mamahlola strategic partnership deal is evidence for more growth in the sector through the AgriBEE approach, having learned from the challenges. Despite the difficulties, the department had ensured that all the 203 jobs were never lost. The partnership will bring in additional orchard development and therefore more jobs. The new year will see the Department confidently handing back a sustainable project to the Mamahlola people; to the Tzaneen Municipality, a major contributor to the regional economy. Mamahlola has regained its glory – a ‘fruit basket’ in the Letsitele valley.

The department is developing a strategy to take advantage of the new water allocations from the Blyderivierspoort dam. About 7 920 000 m³/annum, which translates into about 800 ha area will be made available to land reform projects. The strategy will use specific targeting, ensuring that the water is made available to the high value projects, with sound AgriBEE component and a potential to create sustainable jobs – efficient utilisation of the provincial scarce water resources. Collaborations with DWAF, DBSA and the Maruleng Municipality have started and a strategy will be in place within four months.

For reasons already stated, the LRAD sub-programme only has 48 865 hectares of land delivered since 2001, which translates into an annual improvement of only 8% in the past year. This is very negligible bearing in mind the 2014 targets. However, a youth LRAD project will be launched in Mogalakwena Municipality within eight months. This demonstrates our commitment to sound investments in agriculture, targeting the new generation – “future farmers”. The young people have been trained and mentored by one of the most successful black commercial farmers in Vhembe District. The 15 young people (eight female and one disabled) have acquired about 407 hectares of land on the banks of Mokalakwena river for vegetable and poultry production.

The Mogalakwena Municipality has not only been part of the project from conception but has also made material commitment to support the project, which had been included in the municipal IDPs.

In support of the restructuring of RESIS project, the IPILRA process will receive special attention to ensure communities do accede to providing more secure tenure to the farmers in order to attract further investments and therefore, more potential for growth and job creation. The current PTO holders/rights holder (mistaken for farmers), most of whom are over 65 years old, will be urged and encouraged to hand over those rights to the younger generation (intra-family).

The Department has over decades, utilised land belonging to the Langa Tribe (Bakenberg) as a government cattle project known as Vaalpenskraal. The community received no benefit from the project, let alone rental for the loss of user rights. I believe the community’s patience has not run out since my predecessor communicated our noble intentions. The department had embarked on a bush control and planning of the camps on the farm, in preparation for a hand-over. Assistance will be provided by the district and municipal officials on sustainable utilisation, in particular settlement of farmers and stocking rates. As I speak, the above project has employed 75 local community members for a maximum of three months under the guidelines of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).

Honourable Speaker, my Department will be embarking on a few key rural economic drivers this year, I would to briefly inform you about them. These are:

* The Department will roll-out the AgriBEE Workshops to all 26 local municipalities in an effort to ensure that our people are fully informed about the opportunities and challenges of black economic empowerment (BEE) in Agriculture. We call AgriBEE “Bo seka bo e ja” since we cannot wait to consolidate everything in our economic struggle while we need to meet our daily basic needs. Ten target groups have been identified and invited to be comprehensively informed by EmpowerLogic so that they can make informed investment decisions in agribusiness.

The Department is investing about R3.5 million in this project, which should be completed by 30 June 2005. Comments about this project are that it is being over-subscribed at the local level. This is good sign that our people want to know their options that are being afforded by this Government. Should there be additional need about this project the Department will evaluate the value of further intervention.

* The Department will further agricultural survey in all the 508 wards, 26 local municipalities and the six districts of our province. The key objective is to establish credible base line data that covers the full spectrum of agriculture in the Province to deepen the importance of this sector to economic development challenges faced.

* Collection of specific data to profile and comprehend the state of the sector is critical and necessary. The existence of weak, incoherent, gues-timated, surmised, assumed and conflicting data about the sector creates an impression that the Province (the Department of Agriculture in particular) is not being serious about objective and sustainable planning to agricultural development.

* Honourable Speaker, as all of you could have observed, our StatsSA has not yet included black farmers in their farmer survey and this create a serious planning problems for our local municipalities and the provincial departments. The Department wants to correct this situation for good. The Department has appointed a service provider who will be hiring the bulk of our unemployed graduates from communities in Limpopo to undertake enumeration in all of our 508 municipality wards. This project will cost the Department about R7 million to complete and will be completed by 30 September 2005.

* With the assistance the national Department of Agriculture, three LandCare projects will be implemented for the next three years. These are, Lepellane Catchment Reclamation for about R4.1 million every year for the next three years. Maruleng landcare for about R1.9million every year for three years and Ga-Kibi Landcare for about R2.8 million every year for the next three years. We should be able to contribute to income generation and rural job creation to about 1200 for the next three years for all these projects. About R1.8 million will be retained as incomes in these communities.

* Agricultural Mechanisation programme to assist our small-holder farmers to have access to ploughing services will be established to a tune of initial capitalisation of R5 million increasing it to R20 million in the second and third year. The approach here will be to contract a service provider who will instil some business sense to the entrepreneurs who will qualify to purchase required tractors and equipment.

* As announced by the President during his State of the Nation Address in 2004 and funded by the Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel, for this financial year, the national Department of Agriculture under the Leadership of Comrade Thoko Didiza has introduced MAFISA (the Micro Agricultural Finance Scheme for South Africa) to assist our farmers to have access to credit and finance for commercial production. Honourable Speaker, I will re-iterate, Farming is Business. MAFISA is not going to be one of the grants or charity assistance for farmers. MAFISA is a loan to farmers for serious farming activities. It must be repaid and the farmer must see profit at the same time. My Department will ensure there is responsible lending and people are not going to be enticed into debt traps. More than R110 million will be available on demand for farmers in Limpopo after MAFISA launch. The Executive Council of the Province is giving political direction on the issue. The Department envisages partnership is retailing the credit support to farmers. More will be made available on the processes before Comrade Thoko Didiza launches MAFISA in June this year, hopefully in one of the Presidential Nodal districts of Limpopo Province.

* Furthermore, assistance has been secured for the Community Mobilisation Programme where the aim is to empower our communities and farmer commodity groups to demand services form the Department. There are four elements to this programme, namely, Inter-Farmer Commodity Group visits, Youth in Agriculture promotion and empowerment, Leadership Training and Development and Provincial Agricultural Advisory Forum.

All these elements will ensure that communication and inter-relationships from the ward level to the national levels are informative and debate issues and solve the problems met. The programme will cost about R3.5 million a year.

* The Agribusiness division will invest about R2.5 million in marketing facilities and infrastructure for ten identified communities and our two Farmer Development Centres of Excellence in order to promote value-addition and improve product quality and thus incomes of small-holder farmers.

* The department has furthermore undertaken a feasibility study about the potential for Fresh Produce market here in Polokwane. An interim report has been presented to my Department in early April. Further presentation by EPAKULA Agribusiness consultants will be made to the Economic Cluster for consideration and action. We have invested about R1 million for this project.

* A further development relates to the bio-diesel project in Limpopo. The Department has signed Memorandum of Agreement with the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) to spearhead this project at Tompi Seleka Farmer Development Centre with effect from 1 April 2005. This project will give chance to essential oil farmers to share in the proceeds of the value chain. The Department will provide land, technical support and some equipment while the ARC will bring the technology and the market. The project is valued at R2 million for the 2005/2006 financial year.

I wish to put on record the state of drought in the province and its impact of agricultural production. While StatsSA showed that the value of farm production increased from R39 billion to R53 billion in their 2002 farmer census, this should be understood within the value chain context. Limpopo is currently at just around 54% dam levels and moisture in the soil is not promising. What we witness is “green drought” and soon before winter our farmers will be in serious fodder shortages. This will impact on the red meat and certainly winter cereals and vegetables. The Department has however drought reserves of about R16 million to assist farmers in times of need. Procedures and affected areas will be announced once ready.

Honourable Speaker, the above challenges suggest that we as a Department must triple our efforts to assist in growing the economy, creating jobs, empowering our people and eradicating poverty and ignorance.

The Department will review the sustainability of our food security and poverty alleviation intervention and report to the Executive Council and this House on possible sustainable methods of how the Department of Agriculture can contribute to the management of this challenge of poverty eradication without social securitising the agricultural activity. We must recall that Farming is Business.

As indicated when I started, “Nothing about us, without us”. This is the principle I will want the clients out there to judge our new delivery strategy as we move forward to empower our people. Another important feature in my Department will be monthly themes that will amplify the activity that characterise every month for the next twelve months from 1 April 2005. Every month is important and that will have to be known and communicated.

Honourable Speaker, I wish to take this moment to sadly pay tribute to one of our fallen sons of the soil in Limpopo, Mr Bertie van Zyl of ZZ2 who passed away almost six weeks ago. Even more sad, more than six of his workers were killed in an accident just a few days after his burial. We hope their souls are joined in the final resting place where all of us are heading. Honourable Speaker, Mr Van Zyl has put Limpopo on the world map of tomato production. ZZ2 has perfected best practice in tomato production. This legacy must be preserved and expanded to coming young generations through mentor-ships and learner-ships. We say to the ZZ2 Group and the Van Zyl’s be comforted and know that your efforts are highly appreciated in every turn and to the old man we say, “Robala ka khutjo Maponto as you were affectionately known.” Your trails will be respected for many generations to come in this province.

Honourable Speaker, I now wish to take this opportunity to thank all of you for having taken the pains to listen to the extended story of Agriculture in the Province. I also would like to take this opportunity to thank our Premier for the continued interest he shows in matters of agriculture and my colleagues in the Executive Council who share the same. As we invest more in agricultural infrastructure we must remember, “More Crop, More Profit Per Drop”. Water is a luxury in Limpopo and we must use it very wisely.

I will also like to thank the HOD Mr Maloa and his staff for taking charge in re-shaping the best practices for agriculture performance in the Province. Your efforts are noticed. To my staff, keep the diary well and make sure I have all the facts for my engagements.

Honourable Speaker, the support which various stakeholders are providing to the Department can’t go unnoticed. I am talking here of our strategic partners, of institutions like the ARC (Agricultural Research Council), the Land Bank, DBSA, ABSA, IDC (Industrial Development Cooperation), LADEP, GTZ , SAFM, NZALO and many others.

The performance of this year’s financial appropriation should certainly be above 97%. This is the target on which my performance must be measured in twelve month’s time!

I thank you!

Issued by: Department of Agriculture, Limpopo Provincial Government
26 April 2005