Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza has tabled, in Parliament, a R17.2-billion budget for her department in the 2023/24 financial year, including transfers to provincial agriculture departments and relevant entities.

She highlights in her Budget Vote Speech the imperatives of addressing food security, spatial planning, rural development and the redistribution of land, particularly as communities across the country remain plagued by past injustices and unrestored land rights.

Didiza maintains that the lingering effects of Apartheid and colonialism created disparities in resource allocation, infrastructure and opportunities for growth in the agricultural sector.

Additionally, the multifaceted challenges have further hindered the ability of traditional agricultural areas to thrive. The limited market access of these spaces has curtailed the potential for economic growth and self-sustainability of these communities.

In the 2023/24 financial year, Didiza makes an investment case for these areas according to an assessment done by the department’s planning unit and a team from the National Agricultural Marketing Council.

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) also engaged with traditional leaders.

The department has deduced from opportunity mapping exercises that, even if a mere 10% of land in these rural areas is put back into production, it could contribute R59-billion to gross domestic product over and above the business-as-usual baseline.

In turn, this can unlock about 50 000 jobs in agriculture and related rural economic activities.

To this end, the department would need to be able to invest in infrastructure, skills development and enterprise support.

Didiza confirms her department will upscale its mapping and geospatial analysis activities of rural communities using drones. She says this approach will help identify suitable areas for crop cultivation and grazing, as well as enable informed decision-making and targeted resource allocation.

The National Development Plan also envisions the conversion of underused land in communal areas and land reform projects into commercial production.

She assures Parliament that the R17.2-billion budget will contribute to economic reconstruction and recovery, including through ongoing research and development efforts, the retention of existing markets and the development of new markets.

The restitution of land has been a recurring theme in the DALRRD’s budget, with the lion’s share, or R3.7-billion, of last year’s budget, which totalled R17.3-billion, having been allocated towards the restitution of land.

Didiza deems it imperative that communities own and manage their own land.

Meanwhile, the Minister says the department, through its Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme, managed to support 15 853 farmers through conditional grants in the 2022/23 financial year. This while the Ilima/Letsema programme assisted 25 781 farmers.

In the 2023/24 financial year, another R2.15-billion is earmarked to assist farmers with production inputs and infrastructure from these two programmes.

The DALRRD will soon announce what it has agreed with commercial banks regarding extending a blended finance scheme to farmers in 2023/24, which will increase access to affordable financing.

The blended finance facility that is in place with the Industrial Development Corporation approved 20 transactions in the 2022/23 financial year, which created 845 jobs. Another blended finance facility with the Land Bank has approved 35 transactions, creating 588 jobs.

Additionally, through input vouchers from the Presidential Stimulus Initiative, the department supported 157 000 subsistence farmers in the 2022/23 financial year,

CANNABIS UPDATE

Didiza says the current Private Members Bill has been expanded to include commercialisation of cannabis and hemp.

Currently, the National Assembly is seized with processing public comments on this section of the Bill. The Inter-Ministerial Committee has also been meeting to give direction to ensuring that interim measures on commercialisation of hemp are realised.

These measures include changes to the existing tetrahydrocannabinol limit for hemp to 1% and amendment of Schedules 4 and 6 of the Medicines Control Act.

The Minister of Health is currently considering these changes.

Demonstration sites for hemp production have been set up in Rustenburg, in North West, and Roodeplaat, Gauteng.

To date, the DALRRD has issued 397 permits for hemp production.

BIOSECURITY UPDATE

Ahead of the DALRRD releasing a report on findings by the Task Team on Biosecurity on how the country can improve its animal health systems, Didiza says stability is being brought to the Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) facility, having experienced challenges in recent years.

The OBP has served as the bedrock of critical vaccine production in South Africa since being established in 1908; however, it is currently struggling to supply vaccines, leading to deaths of hundreds of horses as of late.

To this end, Didiza has been engaging with OBP and a global pharmaceutical group to assist the OBP to produce vaccines.

In particular, the partnership will see vaccines produced for African Horse Sickness and Bluetongue.

In turn, Didiza says the pace towards strengthening the country’s ability to produce foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccines is gaining momentum.

Following re-registration as a stock remedy under Act 36 of 1947, the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) can now use its vaccine as part of the Department’s FMD prevention programme.

Building on that registration, the ARC has proceeded to formulate 20 000 doses of the vaccine and made it available to the DALRRD to be deployed as and when needed.

To ensure the country has sufficient capacity to produce the FMD vaccine in future, the ARC has completed Phase I of the FMD Vaccine Production Facility towards a fully-fledged facility that will be able to fully meet the requirements of the country and beyond. 

While the factory is being developed, investment towards mid-scale production capacity has also begun with support from DALRRD and this will put the country in a much better position to combat FMD.