Question NW2911 to the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development

Reply:

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) is implementing various financial assistance programmes to enable farmers to improve production together with the provision of production inputs and access to the markets. These include the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP) and the Ilima/Letsema programme. These conditional grants are aimed at promoting and facilitating agricultural development and increased production by beneficiaries of land reform or other black producers who have acquired land privately. The Ilima/Letsema in particular is aimed at supporting rural communities and vulnerable households to produce their own food. Since its inception in 2008, the Ilima/Letsema programme has supported 1,572,952 (one million five hundred and seventy-two thousand nine hundred and fifty-two) beneficiaries to produce their own food. The support includes starter packs for households, schools and community gardens, mechanization support as well as production inputs.

In 2020/21, the DALRRD started implementing the Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES) initiative with the support from Presidency. Through PES, the DALRRD is supporting the Subsistence Producers with agricultural production inputs. This initiative is aimed at supporting the agricultural sector to retain self-employment and strengthening local food value chains. The agricultural production inputs support is through the e-voucher system for commodities such as fruit and vegetables, grains, poultry, and small and large stock. The support targets women, youth, child-headed households, people living with disabilities and Military Veterans.

Moreover, the Agricultural Research Council has assisted farmers with technological support, drought-resistant cultivars, and advice on cultivars and soils to support their decision-making on their farms. The Provincial Departments of Agriculture (PDAs) have provided support to farmers by providing services like Extension and Advisory Support, Agricultural Engineering, Veterinary, and Agricultural Economics such as business plans, market access, training and mentorship.

To mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on production, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development ensured that agricultural activities were designated as essential services so that farm operations and related backwards and forward linkages were not affected or restricted during the lockdown. The agricultural activities were gazetted as such in the Disaster Management Act Regulations.

In addition, the Department provided support measures for all main categories of farmers as follows:

• Commercial farmers had an amount of R100 million available (though only about R10 million was accessed) at the Land Bank to support them to carry on with production during the COVID-19 pandemic; these measures were over and above the business support administered by banks.
• Smallholder farmers: the department made available a grant of up to R50 000.00 [fifty thousand rands] and an amount of R1,1 billion was applied and approved for this category of farmers benefitting 15746 smallholder farmers.
• Household and subsistence farmers: the department has allocated more than R991 million since the pandemic. To date, about 110 225 subsistence producers have been supported through PES.

FINANCIAL YEAR	EXPENDITURE ON PES SUPPORT	NUMBER OF FARMERS SUPPORTED
	R
2020/21	242 677 000	104 906
2021/22	518 680 600
2022/23	229 805 470,00	5 319 (a total of 36 895 is targeted for support in 2023/24
TOTAL	991 163 070	110 225

Table 1: PES support 2020/21 – 2022/23