Question NW1119 to the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Reply:

RESPONSE FOR QUESTION 1119/NW1212E (1)

The Department supports cooperatives within the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector through various financial and non-financial means. In the past five years the following number of cooperatives has been supported:

• 518 cooperatives were supported with training using the Farmtogether Agricultural Cooperatives Training programme to improve internal operational efficiencies, productivity and enhance competitiveness
• 334 cooperatives were supported with Agribusiness planning skills to deepen their understanding of business planning within the Agribusiness context and to be able to draft their own business plans.
• 251 cooperatives were assisted to conduct diagnostic assessments on their businesses in order to identify business strengths and weaknesses and recommend alternative solutions to drive efficiencies within the cooperative. The enterprises are exposed to conducting self-assessment, in the process are assisted to develop action plans to address identified weakness areas while maximising on their strengths
• 81 cooperatives were assisted to develop action plans to address identified areas of weaknesses.
• 194 cooperatives were supported financially with grants through the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme-CASP and Ilima/Letsema as well as with production inputs loans through the Micro Agricultural Finance Institutions of South Africa (MAFISA).

In the process, a total of 7145 smallholder farmers have been assisted in the past five years by the department.

A comprehensive list of cooperatives with the variables asked for is attached as Annexure 1.

RESPONSE FOR QUESTION 1119/NW1212E (2)

Annual assessments of cooperatives performed by the department indicate that generally, the level of viability and sustainability of cooperatives in the sector is very low. Some of the contributing factors include heavy reliance on grant funding and inability to access financial support from mainstream financial institutions. Access to sustainable markets has been found to be a challenge as well. On a regular basis DAFF perform diagnostic assessments on cooperatives assist them to upscale, improve productivity, efficiency and competitiveness.