Mpumalanga MEC for agriculture tables 2024/25 budget speech

The MEC for agriculture, rural development, land and environmental affairs, Nompumelelo Hlophe, tabled the department’s 2024/25 budget of over R1.5b at the Provincial Legislature on August 8, focusing on several matters and plans within agriculture.
She announced that the focus would be on various projects, including the stimulation of the rural economy through agroprocessing, especially of grain products through the Grain Corridor in the Nkangala District.

“The Nkangala District is considered our Grain Corridor due to its high potential for grain production, such as yellow and white maize, sorghum, soya beans and sunflowers. Having completed the construction and handover of two grain agroprocessing mills, the RAKS Milling in Seabe Village in Dr JS Moroka Local Municipality and Iphakeme Milling in Sybrandskraal in Thembisile Hani Local Municipality, we have created an opportunity for no fewer than 91 farmers to agroprocess their grain produce on over 4 000ha of communal state land in these two rural municipalities.”

ALSO READ: Mpumalanga MEC for public works plans to decrease fatalities on roads

Hlophe said these two mills stand as a testament to the commitment to rural development, industrialisation and entrepreneurship.

“We will enhance the security of grain production as the primary source of supply to the mills in this financial year by erecting a boundary fence spanning approximately 83km across Thembisile and Dr JS Moroka, safeguarding grain crops from theft and livestock damage,” she explained.

Hlophe said the increasing production on land reform farms through the Greening Mpumalanga programme and the operationalisation of agrihubs, both for the Mkhuhlu and Mkhondo markets, is another aspect on which they will focus.
The Mkhuhlu Agrihub is fully operational and serves as the base for the consolidation of, among others, agricultural food commodities required for the National School Nutrition Programme. “The scope of the nutrition programme’s rollout expanded to include 32 hospitals to the existing six boarding schools with effect from April 1, 2023, and has since created numerous market opportunities for 74 small-scale farmers who supplied the programme in the last financial year.”

Hlophe said they completed the refurbishment of the eMkhondo Agrihub this past financial year, and integrated it into the nutrition programme to consolidate local produce in the Gert Sibande District.

ALSO READ: Runners enjoy GBVF 4-in-1 half-marathon at Mbombela

While discussing youth unemployment, she said it is unacceptably high in the province. She said according to a recent Mpumalanga Socio-economic Review and Outlook Report, the provincial unemployment rate at its strict definition was at 34.9% in the fourth quarter of 2023, and 36.2% in the first quarter of this year, standing at the fourth highest of the nine provinces.

“This very high youth unemployment rate, especially among women, is a serious concern and a top priority for us. We are working hard not only to revive and upscale the department’s Fortune 40 Youth Programme, but also to mainstream youth entrepreneurship across all our primary and secondary production efforts in the sector.”

Hlophe said the Mpumalanga International Fresh Produce Market (MIFPM) is now built with an operator appointed to manage, capacitate and operationalise the facility. She said the focus now moves to facilitating an investment-friendly environment in support of the market, agricultural hubs, rural villages and communal property associations for the benefit of small commercial farmers and local SMMEs alongside the commercial farmers in our province.

Hlophe said the department will utilise the MIFPM as a catalyst to stimulate rapid inclusive growth of the agricultural sector and create more decent jobs, both on the farm and at the market.