Question NW2100 to the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and FisheriesQUESTION

Reply:

Yes. There is a budget allocated to the input supply programme through the Ilima/Letsema conditional grant.

a) The table indicates the financial allocation per province for the implementation of the Ilima/Letsema programme aimed at supporting farmers and households with inputs to produce their own food.

PROVINCE	ALLOCATION
	R’000
Eastern Cape	67 356
Free State	63 178
Gauteng	27 673
KwaZulu-Natal	67 356
Limpopo	67 356
Mpumalanga	52 213
Northern Cape	58 480
North West	63 178
Western Cape	55 349
Unallocated	00
Total	522 139

A total allocation of R522, 139 million is made available in the 2017/18 financial year through Ilima/Letsema to support farmers, household food gardens, community gardens and school gardens with agricultural inputs.

b) The funds are transferred to provinces where the operations take place. To date, two tranches have been transferred to provinces as per the below approved disbursement schedule:

Province	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
EC	10%	15%	50%	25%
FS	10%	25%	40%	25%
GP	20%	20%	35%	25%
KZN	10%	20%	40%	30%
LP	10%	15%	55%	20%
MP	0%	25%	50%	25%
Province	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
NC	10%	25%	40%	25%
NW	10%	15%	50%	25%
WC	30%	30%	25%	15%

The disbursement schedule was determined based on the planned activities per quarter in each province.

The expenditure for quarter one is reflected in the table below.

Table 1: Provincial allocations, transfers and expenditure as at end of June 2017
Province R thousand	Division of Revenue Act, 2017(Act No. 3 of 2017)	Total available	Payment Schedule: Year to date	Received by province: Year to date	Provincial actual payments	% Transferred of national allocation	% Actual payments of total received	% Actual payments of total available
Eastern Cape	67,356	67,356	6,736	6,736	1,034	10.00%	15.40%	1.5
Free State	63,178	63,178	6,318	6,318	339	10.00%	5.40%	0.5
Gauteng	27,673	27,673	5,535	5,535	4,542	20.00%	82.10%	16.4
Kwa-Zulu Natal	67,356	67,356	6,736	6,736	895	10.00%	13.30%	1.3
Limpopo	67,356	67,356	6,736	6,736	7,144	10.00%	106.10%	10.6
Mpumalanga	52,213	52,213	-	-	4,908	0.00%		9.4
Northern Cape	58,480	58,480	5,848	5,848	4,270	10.00%	73.00%	7.3
North West	63,178	63,178	6,318	6,318	6,909	10.00%	109.40%	10.9
Western Cape	55,349	55,349	16,605	16,605	16,605	30.00%	100.00%	30
Total	522,139	522,139	60,832	60,832	46,646	12.20%	63.10%	8.90%

Table 1 above shows that Ilima/Letsema has been allocated R522, 139 million in 2017/18 financial year; R60, 832 million was transferred to provinces in quarter one and the expenditure stands at R46, 646 million as at the end of the quarter under review representing 63.1% expenditure against the total received and 8.9 % of total funds available. North West spent 9% more than funds transferred, followed by Limpopo at 106% and Western Cape spent 100% of funds received. There is poor performance by Free State, Kwa-Zulu Natal and Eastern Cape provinces at 5.4%, 13.3% and 15.4% respectively although the payment schedule was determined by provincial planned activities per quarter, these provinces experienced delays in concluding procurement processes in the quarter under review. Mpumalanga did not receive any transfers in the quarter under review as their business plan had no planned activities in quarter one, however the province spend 9.4% of the total available after reviewing their plans. The above table shows a fair overall performance at the end of quarter one and DAFF has planned monitoring visits to verify reported performance.