Question NW2452 to the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
10 November 2023 - NW2452
Masipa, Mr NP to ask the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
(1) Whether she will furnish Mr N P Masipa with the relevant details about the dysfunctional agri-parks regarding the (a) total amount spent on each dysfunctional agri-park project, (b) reasons for the failures, (c) actions taken against the implementors and (d) total number of jobs lost as a result of the failed projects; (2) whether her department intends to allocate additional money towards the projects; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
1. There are no dysfunctional Farmer Production Support Units (FPSUs). In the Free State the Springbokfontein Agri-Hub is experiencing conflict within the existing cooperative, which will be resolved by registering a new cooperative. This however does not indicate that the Agri-Hub is a failure or dysfunctional.
(a),(b),(c),(d) Falls away.
The Agri-parks programme is comprised of three legs, i.e, the Farmer Production Support Unit (FPSU), where mechanisation and production inputs are provided; the Agri-Hub where production is collated with a little bit of value addition; and Rural-Urban Markets where the produce is sold. Currently, the Department is implementing only the first leg of the programme, which is the Farmer Support Programme (FPSU). The diagram below depicts a typical Agri-park.
There are two (2) major components in the establishment of a Farmer Production Support Unit, (FPSU) namely: Infrastructure and Operations. The functionality of the FPSU is determined or defined by the FPSUs ability to provide any of the following to producers towards agricultural production and market access:
- Governance structure;
- Production inputs;
- Mechanisation support;
- Human resources support; and
- Producer registration.
(2) Yes. Please refer to Annexure A.