The City of Ekurhuleni opens a bid for the lease of agricultural farms
The City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) invites proposals from interested organisations to perform agricultural activities on part of council-owned land in several areas.
The land release initiative is set to get rolling, as the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) invites proposals from interested organisations to perform agricultural activities on part of council-owned land in several areas.
Successful bidders will be awarded municipal farms to lease for nine years and 11 months under the programme.
MMC for Finance and Economic Development Nkosindiphile Xhakaza said the city has initiated the bidding process to develop a permanent urban and near-urban agricultural base to provide a local food source for the local economy.
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“The city intends to provide opportunities for community economic development by creating jobs and meaningful work for the local community. We also want to reduce the volume of agricultural imports by providing locally grown, produced and sold foodstuffs, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions related to food transportation, helping to reduce the impacts of climate change,” Xhakaza said.
He said the city wants to help communities relieve poverty and hunger by fostering social equity and food security in these areas by increasing access to fresh and healthful products.
“We are going to partner with individuals and organisations to develop innovative educational programming that focuses on themes on sustainable urban agriculture including sustainable farming and food security practices.
“The city also has different categories of farms varying in sizes from social farms one less than five hectares, social farms two more than five hectares but less than 10 hectares, small scale hectares, developmental commercial farms that are 30-100 hectares and established commercial farms that are more than 100 hectares.
“We want to urge our farming community to take advantage of this opportunity by visiting our tender office at 68 Woburn Avenue in Benoni or visiting our website (www.ekurhuleni.gov.za) for more information.”
CoE will also be hosting stakeholder engagement sessions to educate interested bidders on the city’s agriculture development strategy and provide more information and guidelines on the supply chain management process flow to be used when submitting proposals or bids during phase two of the programmes.
Due to Covid-19 protocol, only 50 people will be allowed in the venues.
The sessions will also be livestreamed in all CoE’s social media platforms and the closing date for the bid is August 31 at 10:00.
Contact the newsroom by emailing:
Marietta Lombard (Editor) germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za, or (Journalists) Busi Vilakazi busiv@caxton.co.za
