Question NW3597 to the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
07 November 2022 - NW3597
Masipa, Mr NP to ask the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
With reference to her reply to question 1952 on 11 July 2022, will she furnish Mr N P Masipa with (a) a detailed breakdown of the costs of cattle that were bought by her department for farmers in each province in the past 10 years, (b) information of the recipients of the cattle and farm names in each province in the past 10 years and (c) the relevant details of the conditions of the farms as it pertains to water rights, grazing capacity and veld conditions; (2) whether all farms are still in production; if not, (a) why not and (b) what is being done to resuscitate the farms. (3) whether there was additional support besides the provision of cattle; if not, why not; if so, what additional support was provided. (4) what (a) is the total number of applications that were received in each year in each province, (b) number of applications was declined and (c) were the reasons for declining the applications?
Reply:
(1)(a),(b) Please refer to Annexure A.
(c) For cattle farming, a farmer is not required to have water rights, especially where there is no need to augment feeds through planted pastures which are under irrigation. The farms that the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) has supported rely on natural grazing. Where there is a need for additional feed due to discrepancies on the carrying capacity, farmers usually augment this with planted pastures done under dry land. As part of the support, farmers would be provided with summer and winter licks, beyond that, farmers would then have to bail grass and use it for feeding as well. When a business plan is developed, the number of animals that get approved is aligned to the carrying capacity of the farm.
(2) Yes; farms are still in production, however, at various levels, especially those that were supported during Recapitalisation and Development Programme (RADP) since they went through phases of drought.
(a),(b) Falls away.
(3) The support to these farms has been beyond just the provision of biological assets, in this case cattle. Additional support would include summer and winter licks, animal trailers, provision of on-farm infrastructure such as, fencing, boreholes, storage facilities, farm and labour houses, and operational costs, etc.
(4)(a),(b),(c) No applications were received. Since 2018 when the Land Development Support was introduced, DALRRD did not call for applications for support. DALRRD following the assessment conducted by the Entsika/Agricultural Research Council (ARC) identified and prioritised 262 farms that were categorised as medium and commercially viable to be supported. According to this system, support would then be provided to list of identified farms as per the categories mentioned earlier in line with the available budget and approved Annual Performance Plans (APPs.)
The model used by RADP never allowed for applications from individual farmers. However, the model was such that strategic partners would partner with the landowner selecting from the projects/ farms advertised. Later the model was expanded to include the mentorship programme to cover the farms that were not selected.