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27 May 2008

Honourable speaker and Deputy speaker of the North West Provincial Legislature
Honourable Premier of the North West Province
Members of the Legislature and National Council of Provinces present here today
Dikgosi tsa rona
Mayors and leaders in our system of Local Government
Honourable leaders of our Political Parties
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen.

The past year was marked by significant challenges in our agriculture, conservation and environment sectors. Twelve months ago, we faced the dire reality of an unrelenting drought. We emerged from that drought and faced good rains, however our relief was short lived as the reality of escalating fuel costs soon hit us.

The dramatic rise in the international oil price filtered through to critical farming inputs such as the price of diesel and fertilizer, making the cost of production versus the price the farmer receives for his produce highly variant. Despite these challenges, we are still committed to weather this period and continue our efforts to build a strong and resilient sector.

Sector Economic Overview
Madame speaker it seems this new era of high and rising food prices has come to stay. This era replaced the one that was characterized by low agricultural and food prices and high volumes of surpluses from developed countries.

Factors that influence food and agricultural prices point to declining local production and high global demand. This worldwide process of soaring prices on basic food stuffs is beginning to lead to political and social instability, with many governments being forced to step in to reduce the cost of bread, maize, rice and dairy products.

In our case the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs has proposed intervention measures which include targeted safety net (short term) measures to alleviate the impact of high food prices on vulnerable groups as well as medium to long term measures to ensure household and national food security.

The report of the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) states that "Food price inflation between December 2005 and December 2006 averaged 7.88%. Wheat has doubled in price, maize is nearly 50% higher than a year ago and rice is 20% more expensive". Unfortunately, these prices are likely to remain high for years to come.

Our country with its high rate of urbanisation, racially unequal agricultural land distribution and the existence of "two agricultural economies", is going to have winners and losers resulting from the impact of climate change and high food prices. These two factors will certainly constitute one of the most binding constraints for accelerated and shared growth in agriculture in the coming years.

From an agricultural production perspective, this situation presents economic benefits to farmers provided their production costs rise slower than their income growth rate. Critical to this will be the inclusion of especially subsistence, small and medium-scale farmers as beneficiaries to ensure the widest possible equitable distribution of income.

On the other hand, high food and agricultural prices will adversely affect buyers, the majority of whom are the poor people in rural and urban areas. Subsistence and small scale farmers, who tend to be buyers of staple food products, will feel the pinch.

Factors such as weather conditions, the introduction of the anticipated bio-fuel production from certain field crops, power shortages, local, regional and world demand as well as exchange rates will continue as never before to influence agricultural production in the country.

Changing consumer preferences in terms of substituting grain products for meat and increasing real disposable income levels are projected to support the increase in demand for all types of meat products. However, high feed costs will put pressure on livestock production and the profitability of especially feed lots, dairy farmers and pig producers. On a positive note, the horticultural sector remains attractive and competitive and well positioned to achieve a reasonable growth rate over the next three years.

In view of the current relatively high domestic inflation, high food prices at retail level, high oil prices, exchange rate uncertainty and power shortages together with the global economic slowdown, it is expected that consumer spending will slow down slightly in 2008, but the growth in income in the emerging middle class and possible higher grants to the low income groups will direct the local demand for agricultural products.

The per capita consumption of maize meal is expected to decrease, while the per capita consumption of bread is expected to increase over the short term. This rise in bread consumption can mainly be attributed to urbanisation and increase in disposable income for a larger section of the population.

The per capita consumption of beef is expected to rise marginally over the short term; however, the consumption of both chicken and milk will increase rapidly because of economic development and urbanization. The consumption of dairy products has grown by 26% since 2003, outpacing the growth in consumption of all meat products.

Madame Speaker, the scenario I have just outlined emphasises the need for government to consider increased investment into this sector which is a cornerstone of our economic wellbeing. Before I proceed to deal with our priorities for the 2008/09 financial year, allow me to share with this house our progress in accomplishing the goals that we had set for 2007/08. The following are some of our performance achievements in the previous financial year.

Human Resource Management and Development
Building the momentum on last year's progress on women recruitment into Senior Management Service (SMS) positions, the department has managed to maintain its statistics of eight women in SMS positions from twenty three posts, and is looking at increasing these statistics further this financial year. Other aspects of the Employment Equity Act are being monitored to ensure that the Department stays on course to reflect the demographics of the province.

A strict system of performance management and the development of staff has been instituted, and all staff and senior managers have performance contracts and work plans in place. Training of staff in the Performance Management and Development System is ongoing, ensuring that its implementation is carried out at the same time.

We have also been able to ensure that job descriptions are compiled for all approved positions in the structure. This process will be followed for the first time by a comprehensive job evaluation process for all posts and levels in the department to ensure that skill is evenly matched to remuneration and level of responsibility.

To contribute to skills development in general, 50 students have been placed on Learner ships in the following areas.
* human resource management: level four
* project management: level four
* plant production: level four
* animal production: level four

The department is further pleased to announce that the focus of the plan this year is mainly the development of 470 general workers through the Adult Based Education and Training (ABET) programme. We also plan to accommodate 24 disabled persons at a cost of R3,6 million to address the challenge of recruitment of disabled persons.

For this we have targeted 17 different positions across the core of our enterprise. These positions range from technicians to managers. Ongoing professional development for middle and senior management on the other hand will be phased-in through carefully selected, sector-specific programmes.

As with everything else in our country, agriculture cannot thrive without quality education and training. The work of our two colleges in Potchefstroom and Taung remains at the centre of our agenda.

We have made progress by ensuring that interpretation of lectures (classes) in Potchefstroom is well implemented to such a standard that it is being studied by other institutions as best practice in introducing dual language instruction throughout the country.

The college has in the preceding year produced 17 students who passed their NQF level 6 higher certificates and are currently busy with experiential training, and a further 23 students received their NQF level six diplomas.

As at December 2007, over 105 emerging farmers from Matlosana, Ventersdorp, Phokeng and Maquassi Hills have received accredited NQF levels one and two training on beef, pig, poultry and vegetable production.

Madame Speaker, we need these colleges to realise qualitative and quantitative impact. In this regard, we plan to improve agricultural production infrastructure such as the piggery and poultry production facilities. Bursaries for deserving higher education students at an estimated cost of R2,8 million per academic year will be instituted from 2008/09.

Furthermore, to assist organisational efficiency, the organisational structure at both colleges will be restructured to allow management and staff to respond adequately to train enrolled students as well as emerging and commercial farmers.

Forty eight (48) young people were taken on learner ships in Veterinary Services, Crop Production, Animal Husbandry, Environmental Management, Information Technology and Human Resources Management to support and contribute towards the PGDS and the five Presidential Priorities.

In the area of agricultural extension services progress has been made in that the Department of Agriculture (DoA) has allocated R6 million for 2008/09 towards the roll out of the extension recovery programme in order to address challenges such as the training and skills development of our extension officers, as well as the provision of relevant work tools and equipment and the hiring of more skilled staff where needed.

This support will continue over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period as a nationally co-ordinated process. Under our environmental services programme, more than 25 000 learners and 830 educators were educated and work shopped this past year through the learner's education programme in areas such as environmental management, environmental law, conservation principles and practices, environmental monitoring and other critical areas.

For the youth, we developed and supported a hundred and thirty environmental youth clubs and carried out a total of thirty two environmental awareness campaigns in order to continue to build a new generation of environmentally conscious and active generation in our province.

Drought and Flood Relief

Madame Speaker our submission and motivation to national in terms of disaster relief yielded results and we are pleased to announce that an allocation of R55 million was received late last year. Eight million rands (R8 million) of this is for the 2003 cold spell damage redress, R45 million for drought relief and R2 million for the Taung flood damage assistance. These funds are being disbursed as we speak, according to the framework specified by national. The relief package strikes a balance between, infrastructure repairs and resuscitation of farming activities.

While we welcome these funds, we recognise the need to train our farmers to prepare for the difficult times by creating fodder banks during the summer season and engaging in proper veld and pasture management practices to mitigate and minimise risks. This is necessary as our fiscal policy does not give us the scope to budget for disasters as a line item.

Letsema la Mantsha Tlala (Food Security)

In response to food security challenges, a total of 228 productive homestead gardens were supported benefiting 879 participants. Forty six community gardens were supported, benefiting 503 participants. Looking forward, the focus on this project will now shift to non governmental organisations and self help groups and not individual households.

This is to ensure sustainability at the right scales and volumes. The department has accordingly set aside an amount of R6 million for this purpose in the new financial year to continue this vital project.

Flagship Projects and Priority Initiatives

In line with our strategic and annual performance plan, the following are some of our main focal areas and flagship projects and we are pleased to report progress as follows.

Western Frontier Beef Beneficiation

This project will commence with an initial R4 million start up allocation from the department. The draft business plan is complete and is being utilised in discussions with potential investors. We are proud to announce that the Industrial Development Corporation has in principle agreed to support this project, particularly the fact that each livestock cooperative shall have an equity ownership together with the investors.

The Department of Land Affairs has been requested to acquire 20 000 or more hectares to kick-start this project this year. The concept to be employed for this project is that farms will be managed by private investors in partnership with livestock co-operatives.

Additional land will be allocated separately to livestock co-operatives to support this project. This concept will ensure that all the emerging farmers are involved throughout the whole value chain of red meat production.

It is estimated that R96 million will be required for fencing, planted pastures, fire belts, fire equipments and livestock handling facilities. Quality bulls from the livestock improvement programme will be contributed, as well as veterinary support from existing departmental capacity.

Furthermore, as from April 2009, all departmental fencing, water infrastructure and firebreaks projects will be diverted and concentrated to strengthen the cooperatives. This support will be given to co-operatives that practice sound natural resource management and good livestock management practices. Accordingly, plans to roll out the national skills fund's Skills development Programme for 500 farmers during the 2008/09 financial year have been completed.

Tosca

The primary aim of the feasibility study being conducted for Tosca is to determine socio-economic opportunities to increase and accelerate the level of economic activities and growth in Tosca and the surrounding areas. The aim is to ensure sustainable development and job creation. Service Level Agreements and the appointment of the Service Provider have been concluded and consultations with all the key stakeholders are underway. Both the feasibility study and the business plan milestones will be concluded and delivered this year.

Taung Irrigation Scheme

The main activity in this project is the replacement of old irrigation equipments (pivots) to reduce high maintenance costs and raise nett farm income and factor productivity.

An amount of R6,2 million has been spent to date during the 2007/08 on the irrigation scheme to complete the drainage system repairs, commence the replacement of both the irrigation centre pivots and sprinkler systems as well as the completion of the construction of the bridge.

I am in the process of speaking to various parties both locally and abroad to raise the additional R300 million needed to bring this promising scheme to full capacity and profitability.

Fencing Programme
This programme, which is in Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) mould, is aimed at fencing grazing areas and crop production in villages in order to control carrying capacity on the land, thus conserving natural vegetation. This programme will continue for a considerable period for all high impact projects. Out of a budget of R6 million in the past financial year, 723 kilometres of fencing was constructed and 31 groups comprising 683 people trained.

We estimate that by the close of 2009, more than 3000 people will be skilled in fencing construction and repairs. A total of R5,4 million has been budgeted for this programme during this financial year.

Mechanisation Programme

The focus of this programme is on providing crop production mechanisation packages to emerging and developing farmers to better position them to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the eminent national bio fuels strategy. This will also create an opportunity to bring idling fallow lands back into commercial production and increase production yields and volumes.

A total amount of R14,4 million has been spent on this project since November 2006. A total of twenty co-operatives, trusts and Communal Property Association (CPAs) have benefited through this project. It is hoped that these beneficiaries will take advantage of this rare opportunity to ensure that land is used optimally to improve the livelihood of our rural poor. The programme will continue in 2008/9 to support previously disadvantaged farmers through their associations and co-operatives.

Nguni Cattle Project

This project distributes 23 heifers and one bull to each beneficiary or company. An annual amount of R2,5 million has been budgeted for by both Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the department for five years (R12,5 million in total). Since inception during 2006/07, 360 animals (23 heifers and one bull set of 15) have been distributed to 15 beneficiaries in the province.

A training manual has been developed for all beneficiaries of this project and thus far six farmers have completed the training. An amount of R3,7 million has been spent on this project to date.

To aid transparency and accountability, we have arranged the criteria for the selection of beneficiaries to be handled independently from the department via a board of trustees made up by the University of the North West, the IDC and a departmental representative.

Anti Stock Theft Programme

This programme was conceptualised after rising levels of livestock theft were recorded in the province. Since its inception, stock theft levels have gradually decreased. Linked to this programme is the Animal Pounds Bill, which we expect will become law shortly.

The Animal Pounds Bill provides in the handling of stray animals, will ensure that not only public safety improves, but that the care and management of animals is seen as a serious responsibility by those who own livestock.

The bill will provide for the creation of municipal and state pounds, as well as the safe confiscation and subsequent disposal of impounded animals throughout the province. The multipurpose livestock handling facilities is one of the sub programmes of the anti stock theft programme.

Thus far, four sites have been selected in each district. The procurement process for the construction of these facilities is in motion. Given the time delays in selecting the sites as well as the finalisation of the pounds bill, the project was deferred for implementation during 2008/09.

An amount of R4 million has been budgeted for this project this financial year. The facilities will assist to bring markets closer to the farmers and increase their returns.

Agricultural Master Plan

Madame speaker we wish to express our words of gratitude to our partners in the Agricultural sector master plan development initiative, being the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), Agri North West, North West Agricultural Farmers Union, the Agricultural Research Council, Free State University, District Municipalities and other key stakeholders who are making invaluable contributions towards the success of this initiative.

The department would also like to extend its special appreciation to the leadership of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) for their R1.5 million contribution towards the success of this project as well as their commitment to fund infrastructure requirements for the projects that will emanate from this Agricultural master plan.

The draft of the first milestone of the project, the Natural Resource Audit, has been completed and delivered and is being upgraded through consultative workshops conducted at various municipalities in the province.

The whole project will be concluded in a period of fourteen months and the delivery of the final product is expected by March 2009. The Agricultural master plan will put us in a better position to integrate Agricultural development plans into municipalities Integrated Development Plans (IDPs). To this end a project steering committee comprising of district municipality representatives has been established and is in operation.

Partnerships with Agricultural Unions
Our partnership with National Emergent Red Meat Producers Organisation (NERPO) on the training and empowerment of unemployed agricultural graduates continues.

Ten young people are currently being trained on livestock production and we hope they will be able to take their rightful positions as independent farmers. We will utilise the Kgora centre in partnership with North West Agricultural Union (NWAFU) and NERPO to train more post matriculants on poultry and vegetable production.

Female Farmers and Women Empowerment

Our recognition of women in food production for internal consumption and export markets continues with the Female Farmer of the Year Awards, and I wish to take this opportunity to salute all our Female Farmers in the past, but most importantly our Female Farmer of the Year 2007, Mme Maria Seleka.

It is my hope that the province will fare much better in this year’s national leg of the competition; however, we are satisfied that we are making progress in the province in the development of female farmers through our equitable share and conditional grants projects and programmes.

Co-operative Governance within the sector

The department has continued to support the municipalities in the province both with technical input and financial resources. Our key contribution has been in the development of integrated waste management plans for all districts. The department has now adopted district land and agrarian co-ordinating committees in our endeavour to deliver seamless services.

On 27 June 2007 we launched the first Agricultural District Fora in Madibeng, Bojanala. This model will assist all other districts to follow. The department has further established the district land and agrarian reform co-ordinating committees to ensure that municipalities are meaningfully engaged and consulted on land development or settlement projects.

All departmental projects are therefore included in the municipal integrated development plans. Issues for regular discussion include land invasions or evictions, land conflicts, land needs, as well as audit of state land.

Land Reform

Redressing the inequity in land ownership is critical to our socio-political stability and thus our efforts in land reform are no small measure. We are pleased to report that the Department of Land Affairs as our partners in this process managed to reach 70% of their target by transferring over 75, 000 hectares of land into the hands of previously disadvantaged persons in this province in the past financial year.

Of this total figure, 24 000 hectares were acquired under the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS), while the rest was achieved through the redistribution and other land reform products. The total spent in acquiring this land amounted to R89 million.

Environmental Regulation, Monitoring and Compliance

With the current global concern over the Environment I am happy to report that we in the North West Province are playing our role to ensure that our environmental issues receive the due attention necessary through our comprehensive environmental services programme.

In the past financial year we completed the draft for a key piece of enabling legislation the North West Biodiversity Conservation Bill, which is now with the Chief State Law Advisor.

We are therefore well on our way towards seeing this piece of legislation promulgated within this year after the necessary milestones in the lawmaking processes have all been complied with. Other achievements include the gazetting of hunting regulations and the completion of an Environmental Management Framework for the Magaliesberg Protected Environment.

Furthermore, a provincial biodiversity conservation strategy is now operational, as is the implementation plan for the threatened and protected species regulations. We now have access to quality data for environmental monitoring through the installation of the biodiversity information management system.

One of our key roles as a department under the environmental services portfolio is to ensure that development keeps pace with the targets set for the province but not at the expense of the environment. To this end, we carefully processed more than 355 environmental impact assessment applications through a process of review and investigation.

Under this process, more than 40 business rights and subdivision applications were handled, as well as the review of 300 mining applications. Resulting from these administrative actions, R950 000 of revenue was collected in respect of non compliance fines. Because of the industrial nature of economic activity in some parts of our province, the monitoring of air quality is a critical responsibility.

To this end, we established the provincial municipal air quality forum in the year under review. This enabled us to review and analyse air quality reports of four major companies based in the province. This air quality monitoring role has been driven alongside the newly completed provincial hazardous waste management plan, which is implemented in turn via a province wide waste management reporting tool.

Support to Environment and Sustainable Development in the North West (SESDNW)
Madame Speaker the Support to Environment and Sustainable Development programme we have implemented with the inns in the last five years came to an end officially on the 31st of March 2008, as we announced last year. There is however a short extension which will see the last of our Nordic friends takes their leave at the end of October of this year.

This has been a highly successful project, as both the North West and Finland experts on environmental matters have attested. Through this programme we are in a much better position to apply the latest technological interventions in environmental protection, monitoring and planning. The projects, which formed part of this programme, will now be fully integrated into our environmental services programme.

We are holding discussions with our Finnish partners to identify other programmes in which we shall continue our partnership. Capacity has also been built at local government to enable this sphere to play its role in environmental compliance, monitoring and enforcement. The support was given through training workshops on environmental impact assessments as well as the MULTA environmental training for all municipalities in the province. To increase capacity at this sphere of government, we placed twenty interns; nine at municipalities and eleven within the department.

Heritage Sites

You will be pleased to hear Madame Speaker that significant progress has been made regarding the two World Heritage Sites under our stewardship. As forecast in the previous budget speech, the three requirements for official inscription of the two Heritage sites by the United Nations Convention for Heritage Sites were met. The requirements pertained to the appointment of management authorities, the adoption of integrated management plans and the legal definition of boundaries.

Regarding the appointment of management authorities, the national minister has since appointed the Director-General of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism to as the management authority for Vredefort. We expect that this role will accordingly be delegated to the Deputy Director-General in the province; regarding Taung. This arrangement is a transitional measure while an appropriate model for the management of all heritage sites in the country is being finalised. Our focus this year will be in the development of facilities in the Taung World Heritage Site.

Tarrifs for EIA Applications

Madame Speaker one of the key functions of the environmental programme is to properly control and monitor physical development through the Environmental Impact Assessment application process, as we have already mentioned. In the previous financial year, we made a commitment to introduce new tariffs for environmental impact assessments applications for the North West province.

This process has however been held in abeyance, as we await the finalisation at national level, of a consistent tariff structure which will apply across the country. The North West's new tariff structure will therefore be implemented once the national guideline is in place.

Transformation, Game Farming and Hunting

Our ambition to transform ownership and participation patterns in the Game Industry has not waned. We are happy to report that the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) strategy for this sub-sector is now in implementation mode.

In this regard, a pilot project for game farming has been completed, with encouraging results. The features of the project include the incorporation of consumptive tourism (professional trophy hunting and its related activities), non-consumptive tourism (photographic safaris, etc) and wildlife management. 800 hectares of land has been secured for the project from community trust land.

A corridor of state and community land towards Madikwe Game Reserve has been identified as the best option to kick - start this initiative. Progress to date is that confirmation of transfer of land to the community by the Department of Land Affairs has been achieved.

A Private Public Partnership model has been established for the support of this project and it includes government, a private game farmer, the community and a non-governmental organisation.

The department has also lobbied support from private entities both at the national and international level to ensure that the project becomes a success.
Through this lobbying process, we now have the endorsement and support of key partners such, the Professional Hunting Association of South Africa, (PHASA) Safari Club International, the African Wildlife Foundation, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and the European Internal Council for Wildlife Conservation.

The Way Forward for 2008/09

In accordance with the undertaking we made in the previous year, we have been able to also support five youth projects and six women projects; all to the tune of R9 million in the province. We shall continue to increase this number in the future.

In line with our strategic plan, I will now outline some of our priorities for the current financial year. Madame Speaker we intend to

Finalise
* The Pounds Bill
* Biodiversity Conservation Bill
* Integrated Waste Management Plan
* Provincial Air Quality Management Plan
* The Agricultural Master Plan
* The Risk and Disaster Master Plan
* Tosca Feasibility Study

We will launch the
* mentorship pilot programme and
* farmer training for all our grant recipients

Anchor Projects, we will also continue with the following anchor projects this financial year
* World Heritage Sites, Vredefort and Taung
* Nguni Cattle Development
* Western Frontier Beef Beneficiation
* Taung Irrigation Scheme
* Mechanisation Programme
* Letsema la Mantshatlala
* Fencing Programme
* Firebreaks Programme
* Multi-Purpose Livestock Handling Facilities
* Milk Production (Feasibility Study).

Transfer Payments

Madame Speaker there were managerial shortcomings identified in the Directorate for Entrepreneurial Development (DED) in the past. We therefore had to embark on a process of repositioning this entity with a view to make sure that it is compliant with all laws and all the services that it is designed to render.

This repositioning entailed a number of set measures which were reported on and these include the
* appointment of an audit firm to assist in compliance with the DED act and the public finance management act (PFMA)
* establishment of internal systems of control and policies
* appointment of a new advisory council
* approval of a new structure for DED
* appointment of new management and staff
* development of an accurate asset register
* clearance of all outstanding audit queries
* development of a new strategic plan.

The repositioning process has now been completed and the new public entity is ready to commence with business in compliance with the DED Act.

Madame Speaker there is a need to retain the DED as a public entity to perform the following functions
* offer financial assistance to projects for emerging farmers at lower rates than other financial institutions
* promote transformation of the agricultural sector through agribee
* ensure access to markets for emerging farmers
* provide financial support to secondary conservation and environmental projects
* Conduct capacity building in business management.

It is needless to mention that the province has already lost an opportunity to access MAFISA due to the unavailability of a suitable entity. We now have the opportunity to correct this situation. We hope that this House will accordingly support this budget, to enable the transfer of funds to this entity; which is so important for development in our sector.

Challenges

Madame Speaker notwithstanding the delivery goals we have just outlined, we have to take congnisance of the fact that we operate in a context of significant challenges in the sector.

The following are some of the challenges that will continue to affect our performance
* scarce skills such as economists, environmentalist, air quality specialists and engineers
* specialist business planners for projects
* changing weather patterns
* equitable funding for the sector
* infrastructure backlogs
* constrained competiveness in the sector, and low productivity
* inequitable access and participation in the sectors
* land degradation, particularly in communal areas
* implementation of the supply chain management framework
* soaring food and agricultural prices.

Conclusion

Madame speaker, we are not flinching from the challenge before us, however, we request, in these difficult times, that we be given more support than we have ever had before from all quarters concerned more so this house.

I therefore would like to take this opportunity to table Vote 13 for the 2008/09 Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment (DACE) portfolio for approval before this august house as follows.

Programme allocation

Programme one: Administration
The aim of this programme is to manage and formulate policy directives and priorities and provide appropriate professional support service to all other programmes with regard to finance, information, legal, human resources, communication and other corporate related services. This programme has an internal administrative focus. R118,336,000.

Programme two: Agriculture
This programme has two sub programmes
2.1 Agricultural Support Services
2.2 District Services.

The aim of the first sub programme, Agricultural Support Services is to provide agricultural support services to farmers in order to ensure that there is sustainable management of agricultural resources and sustainable agricultural development.

The second sub-programme, district services aims to provide agricultural extension and environmental services to departmental clients in order to ensure that there is sustainable management of resources, sustainable development and meaningful contribution to the economy of the North West Province. R372,305,000.

Programme three: Environmental Services
The aim of the programme is to regulate and manage the environment providing the following core services and products
* Legislative instruments, policy instruments, project and programme plans, training and skills development, awareness creation, advisory services, research, extension services, authorisations and rejection decisions of environmental authorisations, compliance monitoring, compliance to international obligations and environmental status monitoring services. R54,779,000
Total R545,420,000.

We commit to work together with you, to make this year one of visible delivery in all four areas of our critical portfolio.

Issued by: Department of Agriculture Conservation and Environment North West Provincial Government
27 May 2008
Source: North West Provincial Government (http://www.nwpg.gov.za)