Question NW650 to the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
01 June 2020 - NW650
Steyn, Ms A to ask the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
(1) Whether her department distributes food parcels to needy persons; if so, what (a) criteria does her department use to determine which persons qualify to receive food parcels, (b) number of persons received food parcels from her department each day since 1 February 2020, (c) food and other goods does a standard food parcel contain and (d) is the cost of each food parcel; (2) what is the name(s) of the service provider(s) that was contracted to provide food parcels in each province; (3) what are the details of the plans her department has put in place to ensure that more needy persons receive food parcels, especially in light of the national lockdown to combat the COVID-19 pandemic; (4) whether her department took any steps to liaise with and mobilise civil society and businesses to assist her department with hunger relief initiatives; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details? NW852E
Reply:
1. The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) has not distributed food parcels to needy persons as this is the mandate that was undertaken by the Department of Social Development (DSD). DALRRD received food sponsorships from willing partners within the Agriculture sector during this COVID 19 outbreak. The distribution of such sponsored food items was agreed upon with the relevant sponsor, based on their prioritised areas in collaboration with DALRRD.
(a) The food parcels that were sponsored by volunteers within the Agricultural sector were distributed in accordance with the sponsors’ preferences.
(b) DALRRD did not distribute food parcels except those that were received from sponsors of food items [Golden Harvest donated 5 000 fruit and vegetable packs to communities in the Western Cape].
(c) The sponsored packs had fruits and vegetables.
(d) There were no costs to DALRRD as these packs were donated.
(2) What is the name(s) of the service provider(s) that was contracted to provide food parcels in each province;
REPLY:
There were no service providers contracted by DALRRD to provide food parcels in provinces.
(3) What are the details of the plans her department has put in place to ensure that more needy persons receive food parcels, especially in light of the national lockdown to combat the COVID-19 pandemic;
REPLY:
Though the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) was not directly involved in the distribution of food parcels DALRRD has been monitoring the availability and stability of supply for food in the food value chain and together with its State Owned Entities (SOEs) monitoring the prices of the basic food items using the 28 item Basic Food Basket and the 35 item zero rated food basket. DALRRD has further re-prioritised funding of up to R1.2billion to support small-scale producers that are in production of poultry, vegetables and fruits, livestock and field crops.
(4) Whether her department took any steps to liaise with and mobilise civil society and businesses to assist her department with hunger relief initiatives; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details? NW852E
REPLY:
Before the pronouncement of the lockdown by the President the DALRRD Ministry established Task Teams between the Sector Industry partners (from production, processing and retail), its SOEs and Senior Officials in the DALRRD. The Task Team was established to ensure food availability and food price monitoring occurs more frequently than usual. The process of monitoring food availability and stability is being conducted through an End-to-end Agricultural value chain tracker developed in partnership with Industry partners, which is a 24 to 48-hour reporting cycle, this was to address the challenge of panic buying by consumers who would end up using all their money. The prioritised funding to support small-scale producers is specifically in support of COVID 19 as the department has its usual support programmes such as Ilima/Letsema, CASP, LandCare, Land Acquisition Grants that are intended to support all producers.