Opposition calls for more help for farmers

MBOMBELA – The opposition parties in legislature has called for more help for up-and-coming farmers in the province.

This followed on the tabling of the budget by Mr Andries Gamede, MEC for the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs (DARDLEA) on Tuesday.

Mr Cleopas Maunye, BRA MPL said it was critical since Mpumalanga contains to many rural areas. “We need to focus more on proper support for and partnership with progressive commercial agriculture sector that will improve and support food security,” he said.

“Our province is sitting with lots and lots of farms which are in dire state due to poor selection of beneficiaries and poor assessment on farm purchase at the end of the day we compromise food security. We need to do proper beneficiary selection which will enables us to promote the emerging farmers to commercial farmers through such programme.” (See the budget breakdown on page 19).

He added that the identification of farms bought by rural development must be done in conjunction with experts.

Mr Bosman Grobler, DA MPL, said he failed to see hoe the department would it achieve its priority of upscaling Masibuyele Emasimini and Masibuyele Esibayeni programmes, which offers farmers support with cattle and crops.

“How is the department going to upscale these projects when (farmer support and development) received R26 million less than it did in the previous financial year? With less funds than in the past, the department plans to do more than in the past.”

Both men welcomed the development of the Fresh Produce Market but argued that the Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (MEGA) should be left out of it.

“We plead with the provincial cabinet to allow agriculture to fully implement the project, not MEGA as resolved previously, Maunye said.

Grobler agreed that the proper establishment of the project holds great economic potential for the province but added, “It is highly concerning that the department chose to work with the worst government parastatal in the establishment of this market, MEGA.”

He said the government needed to prioritise supporting up-and-coming farmers. Maunye concluded, “The success of agriculture should be determined by the number of livelihoods created and supported, economic value created and the number of small and emerging farmers who have been transformed into commercial farmers not number of land ploughed and transformed”.

Read more on the budgets of other departments here.