What you need to know about the new direct marketing guidance note
Nadine Mather and Chloë Loubser
Recapitalisation programme assisted 595 farms
According to Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti, by the end of September last year the Department had assisted 595 farms under its recapitalisation and development programme. The Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) reports that the minister spoke to the media on progress made in the Economic Sectors and Employment Cluster, of which he is chair.
Nkwinti outlined various initiatives aimed to support smallholder farmers as well as agro-processing businesses and small enterprises based in rural areas.
Nkwinti said that 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, are among the farms that had made progress, with 1 307 farms still to be reached by the programme. "Since 2009," Nkwinti said, "823 300 hectares of land had been acquired and redistributed." A total of 1.14 million hectares of land had been surveyed in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. Nkwinti added that ongoing discussions with stakeholders aim to "ensure that land restitution beneficiaries retain water rights after settlement."
Read the full article on http://7thspace.com.
