Almost 600 farms assisted through recapitalisation programme

Briefing the media on Thursday, 1 March 2012, on progress made in the Economic Sectors and Employment Cluster, Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti outlined several initiatives to support smallholder farmers as well as agro-processing business and small enterprises based in rural areas.

The minister, the chair of the cluster, said those farms that had made progress, under its recapitalisation and development programme included: sugar cane farms in KwaZulu-Natal; red meat farms in the Free State, North West and the Northern Cape; poultry in the North West, Gauteng and Mpumalanga and citrus in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Western Cape.

A further 1 307 still had to be reached by the programme, he said.

Since 2009, 823 300 hectares of land had been acquired and redistributed. Of this 7 000 hectares had been allocated to provide the core estate for the Cradock Bio-ethanol project in the Eastern Cape.

The project will be carried out in partnership with the Departments of Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Agriculture and Rural Development and Land Reform.

A total of 1.14 million hectares of land had been surveyed - in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

Nkwinti said support programmes for smallholder farmers were being reviewed.

The government's Zero Hunger Programme created opportunities for the small holder sector to grow by opening up markets for them - such as the school nutrition programme, hospitals and clinics.

Added to this, the 1 658 of the 4 000 water-use licences granted recently - part of the licence backlog - would help contribute to rural development, including afforestation and agricultural development, he said.

"In order to ensure that land restitution beneficiaries retain water rights after settlement, discussions commenced between the Departments of Water Affairs and Rural Development and Land Reform towards achieving the National Water Act to ensure alignment with land reform registration," said Nkwinti.

Other departments were also assisting enterprises based in rural areas. These include:

* The Department of Trade and Industry is expanding its support to agro-processing for rural areas in sectors such as maize milling and others.
* The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will be introducing a complementary agro-processing strategy.
* The Department of Science and Technology continues to support a range of aquaculture and agro-sector projects that make use of new technologies.

Assistance is also being provided to small and micro enterprises in rural areas to offer a simplified environment impact analysis process, as part of the Industrial Policy Action Plan.

Nkwinti said the consultation process on the Green Paper on Land Reform had been completed.

"The department, in partnership with the key stakeholders, is analysing the public and written comments," he said, adding that his department aimed to present the draft policy by the end of March.