Question NW4268 to the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
03 January 2023 - NW4268
Matiase, Mr NS to ask the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
In light of the fact that the High-Level Panel report discovered that only 5% of employed people work in agriculture, what plans and strategies has she put in place to improve the capacity of the agricultural sector to create more jobs in order to increase the employment rate in the sector? NW5335E
Reply:
The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) has acknowledged the need to increase employment in agriculture. In general, growth in agriculture is two to three times more effective at reducing poverty than an equivalent amount of growth generated outside agriculture.
As the President stated in his 2022 State of the Nation Address (SONA) speech, the agricultural sector has significant potential for job creation in crops such as citrus, table and dried grapes, subtropical fruit, avocadoes, berries and nuts. Masterplans in the Agriculture and Agro-processing Sector; Cannabis; Sugar and Poultry Industries are contributing significantly to increased investment, improved production and transformation.
The Agriculture and Agro-processing Master Plan (AAMP) forms part of Government’s strategy to revitalise key sectors or our economy stimulate growth and job creation. The AAMP seeks to create 71 000 new jobs, impacting 6 500 small business and an estimated 300 000 livelihoods; further shifting black business participation in the sector from an average of 4% to 19% of market participation by 2030.
The Cannabis Master Plan prescribes a comprehensive plan of action which seeks to fully industrialise the Cannabis sector towards increase economic growth, creation of jobs and for poverty alleviation. The potential size of the Cannabis industry is estimated at approximately R 28 billion with the potential to create up to 25 000 jobs across its value chain.
The Sugar Master Plan was announced in the SONA in June 2019 and developed to guide the future growth of the sector; address a number of serious challenges faced by the sugar industry; stabilize the industry and also to ensure its long-term sustainability. Since the signing of the Master Plan, some progress has been made including the support to small-scale growers (SSGs) and industry transformation interventions. The MAFISA Loan scheme disbursed R4,032,217 to 96 farmers comprising of 1,153 beneficiaries in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal to support farming in the 2022/3 season. There is also additional support which is directly offered by the Department through the implementing agents in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga. Before the intervention of the DALRRD, Mpumalanga had 673 seasonal jobs. With the DALRRD intervention, the number of new 2 jobs were increased to 1 260 seasonal jobs in Mpumalanga. In KwaZulu-Natal, 52 955 jobs have been stabilised.
In 2021, the Department completed the Poultry Master Plan which was aimed at supporting chicken farmers and processors with better production techniques and training is provided to the farmers. Through the implementation of the Poultry Master Plan, the industry has invested R800 million to upgrade production. South Africa now produces an additional one million chickens every week. A total of 1888 new jobs were created in the poultry industry to date and it is envisaged that 2600 new jobs will be created by the end of 2024