DAFFOfficial newsletter of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

July 2014

The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mr Senzeni Zokwana, believes that having strong partner-ships with other stakeholders is crucial to take the sector to another level. He mentioned this during the glitz and glamour International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA) and the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) World Forum Gala Din-ner at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in June.

He stated that they need the partners to develop the sector. “We must find the means through you people to grow the sector and make South Africa and Africa a powerhouse of investors. It is through this kind of gathering where we deal with challenges facing our sector. Together with you, we can conquer all the chal-lenges. We need young, educated people to transform our sector and we can only achieve that by promoting partnerships with them. Partnership is the only way to succeed and help our farmers to reach their potential. We must fight hunger and

By Samuel Kgatla

“We need young, educated people to transform our sector.”

The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mr Senzeni Zokwana.to p 2

July 2014 DAFFnews No. 7 2

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Editor Piwe Mbiko (012) 319 6936 piwem@daff.gov.zaReporters Thuli Dube (012) 319 7929 nokuthulad@daff.gov.za Samuel Kgatla (012) 319 7181 samuelk@daff.gov.za Musa Khumalo (012) 319 6695 musak@daff.gov.za Innocent Mhlanga (012) 319 7827 innocentm@daff.gov.za Rony Moremi (012) 319 6622 rincertm@daff.gov.za Jamela Nkanyane (012) 319 6903 jamelan@daff.gov.za Mercia Smith (012) 319 6666 mercias@daff.gov.zaInterns Hellen Phushela (012) 319 7819 mmamotsisip@daff.gov.za Dineo Makgato (012) 319 6958 dineomak@daff.gov.zaSubeditor Lerato Mofokeng (012) 319 7927 leratomof@daff.gov.zaDistribution Pam Sutherland (012) 319 7104 pamsu@daff.gov.za Website: www.daff.gov.za

DAFFnews is the newsletter of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry

and Fisheries. Private Bag X250, PRETORIA 0001.

It is published by the Directorate Communication Services, Private Bag

X144, PRETORIA 0001.

Opinions expressed in DAFFnews are not necessarily those of the

editorial team. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying,

recording or any information storage or retrieval system without prior

permission from the editor.

eradicate poverty in the sector. We must make funding available and strengthen that relationship with universities. Our products must be in line with international standards and we must never forget that South Africa is the better place to invest.”

Furthermore, he mentioned that they will continue working together to make sure that the country succeeds and makes the sector viable. He also emphasised that government is committed to creating employment in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector.

The Gala-Dinner was one of the activi-ties lined up by the IFAMA and CCA organ-isers during the international conference. It was sponsored by giant world-leading agri-business Syngenta. The conference was one of its kind as it was for the first time hosted on the African continent, especially South Africa. The forum provides a plat-form to discuss transformation models that are advancing agribusiness at all levels.

The purpose of the conference was to bring together top executives, academics, policy makers, students and stakehold-ers to network and stimulate strategic thinking across the global food, fibre, fuel, floral, and forestry systems. More than 500 attendees from more than 30 countries participated in interactive semi-nars. The three-day (16-19 June) forum was uniquely immersive and interactive, featuring workshops, facilitated discus-sions and demonstrations of cutting edge technology.

Thad Simons, President of IFAMA, said that people feed the world and, as agri-business leaders, it is their responsibility to develop future generations of talent pas-sionate about creating and implementing solutions that will ensure they can over-

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Minister emphasises on partnership development

come the food security challenges in Africa and beyond. In addition, he said they believe that partnerships made through the World Forum – between academics, government and the private sector— are fundamental to success.

Mr Senzeni Zokwana, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries having a conversation with students from the University of the Free State.

General Bheki Cele, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries at IFAMA conference with students of the University of the Free State.

No. 7 DAFFnews July 2014 3

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The Department of Agriculture, For-estry and Fisheries (DAFF) has made a mark towards food security in rural communities of South Africa at a con-sultation meeting driven by the NGO, Bio-watch South Africa, in partnership with the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) to support subsistence farmers in KwaZulu-Natal.

In June 2013, DAFF officials met with the farmers and Bio-watch in Mtubatuba where a proposal was made, including a list of all beneficiaries in the project, to be forwarded to relevant departments to support the farmers. Officials were challenged by female farmers to provide support to their Agro-Ecological farming project adopted from Biowatch SA. The NGO provides training and other support to the farmers to be able to grow their own vegetable gardens which feed their families and the community.

Water tanks and infrastructure made the list of resources needed to assist the women in their back yard gardens.

Njokweni Ntsonto, the Deputy Director of the Directorate: Stakeholder Relations engaged the DWA with the proposal result-ing in good partnership.

Speaking at the consultation meet-ing in Pongola on 10 July 2014, Njokweni told the gathering that “over 20 mil-lion people go to bed hungry. DAFF wants to work with farmers and stakeholders to achieve food secu-rity.”

The women could not hold their excite-ment when Bernice Cullis, Assistant Di-rector in the Kwa-Zu lu -Na ta l DWA announced that her department has been

Government supports rural food production

By Jamela Nkanyane

corresponding with DAFF and is going to provide 20 water tanks to beneficiaries. “We will provide 20 rain harvesting water tanks to 20 beneficiaries this financial year and continue to support the farmers until all 697 farmers have water tanks,” she added.

Biowatch SA supports farming projects in 5 communities in Pongola, Ingwavuma, Mtubatuba, Tshaneni and KwaNgwa-nase.

Sophiwe Dlamini from the Impisemath-unjini project said “We do not have rivers nearby. We are grateful to DAFF and DWA for providing us with water tanks.” She further expressed how Biowatch has taught them to save water.

However, not all their requests were met. Ntsonto said the list of beneficiaries did not provide identity numbers of the beneficiaries making it difficult to verify their existence. He urged Bio-watch SA to review the list and provide identity numbers of all beneficiaries on the list.

Projects are run on communal land planting crops for commercial purposes and another part for seed multiplication.

Dlamini has a seed bank in her home.

She stores seeds such as ground peanuts, maize, coffee beans and other various types of beans: cow peas, pumpkin and sorghum.

Food production in the communal land is a success that has landed the women a market in the local Pick and Pay, and Boxer stores where they have been supply-ing their products since 2011. However, Eunice Ngidi from the Zimele project said they face challenges, particularly with live-stock that destroys their crops as there is no proper fencing. Talking to the officials she said, “Our household gardens are fenced but the communal land is fenced with tree branches, making it accessible to livestock. We request assistance from government to protect our crops on the communal land.”

The women also requested government to assist with gardening tools and the dis-trict municipality in agreement responded promptly.

Msizi Kunene, an official from the Zu-luland District Municipality (ZDM) urged farmers to contact their ward councilors should they need assistance from the municipality. Currently the municipality

provides two trac-tors for use by the community and one can write a letter of request to the office, said Ntuthuko Mga-bhi, an Institutional Social Development Officer at the ZDM.

The DAFF Direc-torate: Plant Produc-tion is working on a strategy for Agro-Ecological farming as the department currently has no pro-gramme which rec-ognises this method of farming and Bio-watch is one of the stakeholders.

July 2014 DAFFnews No. 7 4

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The Department of Ag-riculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), the exporters of decidu-ous fruit, Perishable Products Export Con-trol Board (PPECB) and other relevant bodies congregated in Stel-lenbosch in the West-ern Cape to reflect on the success and chal-lenges experienced in the previous season (2013 export season). This is an important an-nual meeting that also unpacks the corrective measures in prepara-tion of the upcoming export season, in this regard the 2014 export season.

The DAFF presented a report on the challenges experienced in the previous season and made recom-mendations for the next season. Gener-ally, it has been a good season wherein the majority of the consignments made it to the intended markets with few rejections and/or interceptions encountered. It was acknowledged that there were some chal-lenges and that requires the deciduous fruit exporting community to take correc-tive measures as agreed in the meeting to avoid the rejections and/or interceptions of consignments.

ChallengesSuch challenges include, among others,

the faxing of documents which is not al-lowed, proof of payment, contradicting in-formation between documents, producers not being aware of the market registered for, late registration, uninformed person as a contact person, poor description of cultivar name, inconsistency on the de-scription of block numbers on registration and non-compliance with the required documentation. Also non-compliance on

markings, packhouse non-compliance, non-compliance with the fruit fly man-agement programme, non-compliance with the FCM management programme, unregistered blocks, poor description of orchard number, non-compliance with PUCs, non-compliance with variety reg-istration, non-compliance on additional declarations and late registration.

Apart from the above challenges, the issue of non-compliance at shipping lines appears to be quite a thorny chal-

lenge and it needs all the relevant bodies led by DAFF to take a keen responsibility in ensuring compliance.

The exporters are con-cerned about non-com-pliance at the shipping lines relative to measures that must be adhered to when loading and ship-ping containers which must be according to the market protocol. This challenge has negative implications for the ex-port programmes and that threatens the future of the export markets. The measures in question embrace, among others,

signing off of the necessary documen-tation, time for loading and treatment schedules. The regulation gap on this matter is significantly affecting our industry and it has implications for the mainte-nance of the fruit export programmes,” said an anonymous exporter.

Export and ImportAt the meeting it was emphasised that

as exporters or an exporting country it is quite inevitable to do things correctly in order to create an enabling environment to tap into the opportunities available on the global export markets. It was suggest-ed that a committee involving all critical role players be established to address this matter in the best interest of growing the economy of the country. A successful ex-port programme for deciduous fruit needs the commitment from farmers, marketing agents, packhouses, shipping compa-nies/transportation industry, PPECB, DAFF and, in particular, the deciduous fruit industry to ensure that our country adheres to all the export requirements as

Successes and challenges in deciduous fruit sector

By Mpho Sekgala and Innocent Mhlanga

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No. 7 DAFFnews July 2014 5

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stipulated in the export protocol. The suc-cess of the deciduous export programme is of great importance for the success of the agricultural sector and the economy in general, considering the benefits drawn from the export programmes in terms jobs generated across the value chain, foreign exchange and food security.

Plant pestsThe possible introduction of new plant

pests into our country owing to increasing trade and tourism may create pressure on our production and export systems. There-fore our department has tp work together with other critical role players in building an effective plant health system for the country. That in itself gives a long-term guarantee in terms of generating jobs through ag-riculture, ensuring food security and our involvement in export markets. Fruit flies and exotic pests are challenges to South Africa and Africa in particular. As a country we need to invest enough resources in ad-dressing this challenge.

An exotic fruit fly of Asian origin known as Bactrocera invadens is currently invading Africa and it has been recently declared to be present in the Vhembe district of Limpopo with few detections in parts of Mpumalanga, parts of North West and parts of Gauteng and it is under official control. Farmers, travellers and community members are advised to apply the recom-mended control measures embedded in

the import regulations and national control measures for regulated pests to help in combating this disastrous fruit fly, i.e. avoid illegal importation of agricultural goods, use chemical control and other cultural practices.

All persons involved in the deciduous fruit export programmes are encouraged to comply with the measures stipulated in the export protocol or programme, DAFF and

producer associations are ready to provide clarity to all involved in the export markets in question. Applications for phytosanitary and facility registration together with the associated tariffs are accessible from the DAFF website or you are welcome to con-tact the DAFF National Plant Protection Organisation. Exporters are encouraged to use door-to-door services when sending documents.

A successful export programme for

deciduous fruit needs the commitment from farmers, marketing

agents, packhouses and shipping companies.

from p5

July 2014 DAFFnews No. 7 6

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Celebrating 20 years of democracy in South Africa means acknowledg-ing the achievements and changes brought about by the freedom the country obtained in 1994. Therefore, the successes of the Department of Ag-riculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) since its inception in 2009, is definitely a good story to tell.

The department prides itself in its achievement through developing and sustaining a sector that contributes to and embraces economic growth and develop-ment, job creation, rural development and food security.

DAFF News brings you a series of the good stories to tell about the department in the three portfolios: agriculture, forestry and fisheries. The focus in this issue is agriculture.

The inception of the DAFF dates back to the amalgamation of the national ag-riculture, forestry and fisheries functions to form the new department known as DAFF. Each one of the functions was transferred from another department’s mandate. Ag-riculture was in the portfolio Agriculture and Land Affairs in 1996. Forestry was transferred from the former Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, and Fisheries transferred from the former Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.

The portfolio, Agriculture, has seen many programmes introduced over the past five years. Its objective is to ensure food production for households and em-power farmworkers to create small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs).

The department executed agricultural services through programmes such as the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP), Fetsa Tlala, LandCare and the Micro-agricultural Financial Insti-tutions of South Africa (Mafisa).

Agricultural projects continue to blossom in the department through the CASP pro-gramme. This programme, implemented in the 2004/5 financial year, aims to pro-vide effective agricultural support to ben-eficiaries of land reform’s restitution and

DAFF tells its good stories

By Jamela Nkanyane

redistribution. It has to date managed to allocate about R4.1 billion to provinces for farmer support, reaching around 116 972 beneficiaries. Among these beneficiaries 40% are female smallholder farmers.

More than 3000 projects were imple-mented and managed to support livestock and crop farming commodities country wide. Support was also provided on and off farm infrastructure for production in-cluding irrigation systems and training for beneficiaries.

Steve Mohale is one of many benefici-aries of the CASP programme from the Limpopo province. The provincial Depart-ment of Agriculture (LDA), through, CASP assisted Mohale from the Greater Letaba Municipality to improve production quality and gain access to the retail market. The farm was founded in 1979 and trades its produce with Massmart and Woolworths.

Mohale has also become one of the LDA mentors where he assists neighbouring small scale farmers with technical pro-duction skills as well as market arrange-ments.

During the period 2009/10 to 2012/13, 960 new extension officers were recruited countrywide and 818 officers registered with different institutions countrywide to upgrade their qualifications ranging from Masters to PhD degrees. Over 20 000 jobs have been created through these initia-tives, employing about 10 231 females.

Since the 2011/12 period, CASP has spent over R10 million on revitalising the 12 colleges of agriculture into centres of excellence.

By the same token, the Ilima/Letsema was implemented countrywide since the 2008/9 financial year with an allocation

The portfolio, Agriculture, has seen many programmes introduced over

the past five years.

to p 7

By Jamela Nkanyane

No. 7 DAFFnews July 2014 7

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of R1 billion. This programme focused on rejuvenating the three irrigation schemes: Taung in the North West, Vaalhaarts in the Northern Cape and Makhathini in the KwaZulu-Natal province.

Ilima/Letsema also extended its func-tion targeting the eradication of hunger programme, popularly known as the Fetsa Tlala. The department introduced this pro-gramme in the 2013/14 financial year in a bid to eradicate hunger by 2030.

On this mandate, fighting poverty is on track by increasing food production and 91% of land had been planted by the end of January 2014.

In 1998, the former National Depart-ment of Agriculture and its provincial counterparts established the National LandCare Programme to combat land degradation while enhancing natural resource management. The LandCare has therefore become a communitybased natural resource management programme that the DAFF implemented in the nine provinces of South Africa. The programme aims to promote sustainable use of and management of soil, water and the veld.

LandCare has targeted soil degradation in rural areas over the years spending over R15 million country wide in areas mostly effected by soil degradation such as the

Eastern Cape, Limpopo and the Mpuma-langa province.

Mr Shobathe Mohlahlana, an official from the Directorate: Land Use and Soil Management, praised the progress made by the programme thus far and the contribution the programme has made to the improvement of national natural resources management, particularly in rural areas where natural resources de-cline was increasing as a result of lack of information.

The department also runs a Junior Land-Care programme which has implemented various projects in rural schools. Mohlahl-ana further said that the Junior LandCare programme is designed to encourage the establishment of school gardens through LandCare funding and over the years the programme has managed to create over 100 school gar-dens which contribute to the school feeding schemes.

“Without good nat-ural resource man-agement, the country will face natural re-source decline which actually means de-

cline in food production and decrease in food security”, Mohlahlana added.

Mafisa is another programme the de-partment is running. It is made up of a number of financial institutions accredited to it, including the Land Bank, which as-sists in disbursing financial aid to farmers. Through Mafisa, over 1000 smallholder farmers received about R56 million as pro-duction loans for enterprises in the animal and crop farming sectors since 2009.

Recently, this programme helped renew the Mbahela Cooperative in Limpopo. The cooperative comprising 85 farmers plant-ing maize has been loaned R239 000 by the Peulwana Agricultural Services. The cooperative has made its first harvest in the first week of June and will be sold in the giant Progress Milling in Polokwane.

The South African Veterinary Services has over a number of years managed major animal disease issues and events which im-pacted on the industry and economy of the country. A ban on the export of red meat, following an outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) in 2011 was imposed. However, after coping with the challenges, South Africa regained its official FMD-free zone status on 14 February 2014.

The department’s mandate of ensuring food security has recently been praised by the Food and Agricultural Organisation for fighting hunger. South Africa and Ghana have been confirmed as the two Sub-Saharan countries in Africa whose 95% of the population is properly nourished.

For the current financial year, DAFF will make available R2.1 billion avail-able through CASP and Ilima/Letsema to support the Fetsa Tlala programme, thus continuing its mandate to keep the nation nourished and food secure.

from p 6

July 2014 DAFFnews No. 7 8

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Consumers need to be on high alert to avoid exploitation when buying chicken from some retailers across South Africa as evidence gathered has shown that there is inadequate labelling on imported poultry.

Sol Motsepe, Senior Executive at the South African Poultry Association (SAPA) has warned that there are always serious infringements at several retailers coun-trywide where severe contraventions of packaging and labelling regulations on imported chicken have taken place and thereby compromising the consumer.

“With chicken importers claiming the high ground in terms of quality and good practices, evidence gathered at retail level shows a very different picture. There is inadequate labelling on products and independent tests on imported poultry have yielded some alarming results,” says Motsepe.

According to the Health Department, all food imported and sold in South Africa must be labelled with detailed composi-tional information to ensure consumers receive adequate information before purchase so that the public is not misled by producers.

Motsepe says it is a requirement, for example, that t h e f o l l o w i n g points are shown on the label: a brief description of the ingredients contained in the food should be clear ly pr inted next to the name of the product; a percentage break-down of ingredi-ents advertised; statement such as “high fibre”, “sugar free” and “low fat” must be

Poultry consumers vulnerable to exploitation

substantiated by a table; level of brining; a best before, sell by, and use by date need to be shown.

According to Motsepe this means that should any of these products contain traces of Salmonella or any other kind of bacterial or viral load that is potentially deadly to humans, there is simply no way of knowing the place of origin, dispatch and packaging date. And therefore an infection cannot be contained or con-trolled, posing a serious threat to public health.

Motsepe says while the approximately 200 South Africa’s abattoirs are regularly inspected by the Health Department to ensure locally produced poultry meets the highest standards of food safety; the same however does not apply to the vast quantities of imports that daily flood into our ports of entry such as Durban.

“Before one country can export to another, their abattoirs must be certi-fied by the destination country’s health authorities,” he says. “There are more than 1,000 abattoirs registered globally to export poultry meat to South Africa. But a lack of resources means that these

abattoirs have not been audited by rel-evant authorities.”

Motsepe says that while the govern-ment is trying to maintain high levels of food safety, a mass of imports –more than 40 containers of poultry meat arrive in the Durban harbour daily – is making the verification process impossible. For ex-ample, to check products for food safety and health monitoring, a minimum of 5 samples per container needs to be taken and that seldom happens because of lack of human capital. As a result, SAPA has been monitoring microbiological and food safety on imported poultry meat for the past 12 months through an independ-ent accredited sampling company and ISO accredited laboratories.

“A number of problems have been found. Product samples have emerged with bacterial counts well above allowed standards; chicken livers with antibiotics not allowed in SA poultry production; the presence of Salmonella and alarmingly, E. coli 0157 bacteria that causes food poisoning potentially lethal for children and the elderly,” he says

Motsepe says that meat importers have been taking advantage of the state’s insufficient resources to cir-cumvent a system aimed at ensuring food safety for a number of years.

“This irrespon-sible behaviour is not only potentially harmful to the con-sumer, it shows a complete disregard for the law and ul-timately ensures that the poultry we consume is safe to eat,” concludes Motsepe.

No. 7 DAFFnews July 2014 9

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The South African Poultry Association welcomes the finding by the Interna-tional Trade and Administration Com-mission that dumping of EU poultry products has been taking place in South Africa, and that the appropriate measures have been put in place to correct this.

“As one of the world’s most efficient poul-try producers, local poultry producers have never been afraid of competition,” says Kevin Lovell, CEO of SAPA. “However, we have long maintained that dumping causes material harm to our industry and makes it impossible for our industry to compete on this basis. The anti-dumping action there-

SAPA welcomes anti-dumping duties against EU member countries

The South African Poultry Association (SAPA) welcomes the commitment made by the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, at the State of the Nation Address to the agricultural objectives as set out in the National Develop-ment Plan.

Kevin Lovell, CEO of SAPA, says in aim-ing for a 5% economic growth rate and reducing unemployment, poverty and in-equality, it is apparent that the agricultural sector has a key role to play in helping government to achieve these goals.

“As the biggest single contributor to South Africa’s agricultural GDP and responsible for the employment of more than 120 000 people, the local poultry sector continues to feel the effect of high input costs, imports and dumping, all of which have had a negative effect on the potential for further

Positive commitment to agricultural objectives

fore has always been about levelling the playing fields – not stifling competition.”

Lovell says that in its application to ITAC, SAPA has proved that a prima facie case exists that shows the local industry is suf-fering material injury from dumped poultry produced by EU member countries.

“It is therefore a relief that preliminary anti-dumping duties have been applied to imports from the Netherlands, Germany and the UK, although it remains a little puzzling why different anti-dumping duties were applied against poultry from Germany and the Netherlands,” he says. “We will be requesting clarity in this regard.”

According to Lovell, the fact that poultry is imported from the EU duty-free as a result of trade agreements signed twenty years ago makes dumping from these countries even more difficult to understand.

“Clearly, we need to be able to compete on a quality and value proposition with poultry from the EU - even if it is free of duty,” says Lovell. “We have no doubt that poultry importers will continue to look for cheap chicken, dumped or otherwise, and we will remain vigilant to ensure that inter-national trade agreements are adhered to and our local industry does not suffer from a stacked deck.”

expansion and job creation,” said Lovell. “However, recent positive engagements with both the departments of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries as well as Trade and Industry indicate that we share a keen understanding of the challenges facing our sector and the need to address these in a constructive and supportive manner.”

According to Lovell, with several poultry businesses having shut up shop recently and margins remaining under pressure, further job creation in the poultry sector in the short term will not be an easy task.

“As an Association, we have embarked on a series of actions that will transform the local poultry industry, promote the cause of the emerging farmer, institute a range of measures to assist smallholder farmers, and ensure greater access to information,

education and resources that will encour-age ease of entry to the industry and its markets but also ensure the long-term success and sustainability of these new entrants,” he said.

Lovell added that the partnerships be-tween the private sector and the govern-ment, referenced by President Zuma in his address, are critical to the success of the agricultural sector.

“It is in this light that we view the work done thus far with the government as steps in the right direction, and will continue to work on the solid relationships that have been built between SAPA, government departments, state veterinarians and the health authorities that will serve to grow and develop the local poultry sector to the benefit of all,” he concluded.

July 2014 DAFFnews No. 7 10

Sector

Today we are a further step in the right direction, said Hendrik Ackerman, chair of Agri SA’s Labour and Social Policy Committee. He spoke at the launch of a training project for women in the Keimoes area.

“We have come a long way. We can now, by way of skills training, enable a large group of women to make use of busi-ness opportunities relating to agriculture and food production, promote creativity and also help with the development of children,” he said. Essentially it has to do with unlocking the inherent skills of women and supplementing this with what is necessary to operate a business, said Ackerman.

AgriSA president Johannes Möller, who was the guest speaker on the occasion, thanked various role players involved in the project. “We wish to thank AgriSETA for the funding they provided and spe-cifically those who brought the project to maturity. Our rural communities are of direct importance to AgriSA; farmers, farm workers and women, who must work together and, with dignity, ensure a better future for all.

The capacity of agriculture to create more jobs has declined significantly: which often result in families to survive with only one income. Many people in rural areas are unemployed and need some way in which they can generate an income. “A project that can empower women with skills to start a business – even if it is on a small scale – is therefore very important. Successful initiatives for income generation can be expanded and assist with job creation in the area. Women, in turn, can teach children to become financially independent. This is a win-win situation, and the project is close to my heart, said Möller.

Delene Möller, a farmer’s wife in the area, paid tribute to her female colleagues throughout the country who are involved in a variety of development projects. “We also try to make a contribution to the

Rural women take their future into own hands

community within were we live. In fact, I have a passion, especially for children and women in my area. If my involvement in the project can make a difference to the lives

of people, it will truly be rewarding. If we can expand successfully to other provinces and communities, it will be the proverbial cherry on the cake,” she said.

Skills training, enable a large group of women to make use of business opportunities relating to agriculture and food production.

Essentially it has to do with unlocking the inherent skills of women and supplementing this with what is necessary to operate a business.

No. 7 DAFFnews July 2014 11

Sector

Agbiz launched a publication portray-ing the significant role that many agri-businesses play in improving the lives of previously disadvantaged people in rural communities.

“The contribution of agribusiness in South Africa goes much further than eco-nomic participation and services,” says Dr John Purchase, CEO of Agbiz. “The social contribution of agribusinesses to societies and communities in our country is signifi-cant and needs to be recognised.”

In this publication, Agbiz highlights some of these social and other community projects of members who participated in this initiative. The projects focus on education, poverty alleviation, wellness programmes, health care, food security, development of emerging farmers, em-powerment of employees, etc.

The National Development Plan, also known as Vision 2030, creates a broad guiding framework for the development of South Africa and all its people in order to ensure a more stable and normalised society, greater equality and op-portunity, economic and employment growth, and greater prosperity for all. One of the key tenets of Vision 2030 is that it calls for an active citizenry in the cycle of development.

It is this active citizenry that Agbiz wishes to por-tray in this publication to show how agribusi-ness contributes to the National Development Plan.

“It is indeed a very rare opportunity in the history of South Africa, given its fractious past and legacy of conflicts, that a vision is devel-

Agribusiness contributes to the National Development Plan

oped that finds significant favour and sup-port with the majority of people across its immense diversity. This vision is captured in the National Development Plan – the product of the National Planning Com-mission’s work over the past number of years. Vision 2030 has been adopted by government as its overarching policy framework for South Africa, and all poli-cies and legislation have to be aligned with Vision 2030,” explains Dr Purchase.

“A capable, strong, competitive and well developed agribusiness sector is essential to ensure the global competitiveness of our different agro-food value chains, and thus food security for the country and its people,” Purchase added.

South Africa’s agribusiness sector is the envy of many African countries, providing competitive access to finance, access to

technology and access to markets, and contributes significantly to the country’s relatively good level of food security. This capability provides an excellent basis for greater growth and employment of the sec-tor in order to meet the targets as indicated in Chapter 6 of Vision 2030, entitled An Integrated and Inclusive Rural Economy.

“This Agbiz publication is not an exhaus-tive list of active citizenry participation, but provides some insight into the highly commendable developmental initiatives and approaches of a number of its mem-bers. Agbiz trusts that readers will identify with this constructive contribution by agri-businesses to making our beloved country, South Africa, a better place to live in for all,” Purchase concluded.

The publication is available online at www.agbiz.co.za.

July 2014 DAFFnews No. 7 12

Sector

Leading agri-business company Syn-genta’s Grain Academy conferred cer-tificates to the class of 2014 that com-pleted a four-month long leadership programme. The programme sought to equip 20 commercial growers identi-fied from all over the country with the skills and leadership competencies required to tackle rising challenges of food security and agricultural pro-ductivity.

Developed in partnership with the Uni-versity of Free State’s Business School, the programme commenced in February this year and entails a three-modular interactive session over the period of four months. The class of 2014 is the second to graduate since the Grain Academy was started last year. The ceremony was graced by Prof. Neil Heideman, Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sci-ences, University of Free State, Jannie De Villiers, CEO, Grain SA, Dr John Purchase, CEO of AgBiz and Chairman of Grain SA Louw Steytler.

Antonie Delport, MD, Syngenta SA said, “By successfully completing this rigorous programme, the students have demon-

Grain academy confers leadership certificates to class of 2014

strated their work ethic and commitment to the sector.” After this leadership develop-ment journey, we trust you will also serve as ambassador and attract high quality talent to meet the future workforce needs of agriculture.”

The Grain Academy initiative is sup-ported by industry body Grain South Africa whose CEO Jannie de Villiers said, “Agriculture requires trained leaders who not only understand the technical aspect of farming, but are also fully conversant of the dynamics and issues that affect the sector. The strategic initiative undertaken by Syngenta through the Grain Academy is a much needed investment that will shape the landscape of the agricultural sector, placing it as a competitive industry that drives the economic development of South Africa.”

To successfully complete the pro-gramme, the students are given a modern day agricultural challenge to address and the findings are presented to an audience of industry stakeholders, UFS faculty repre-sentatives and Syngenta management. As part of the convocation, the students show-

cased their research findings and were recognised for their work. Their projects answered questions around the imminent water crisis in South Africa, the state of agriculture in the country as well as the utilisation and distribution of communal land through policy and legal frameworks to improve food security.

Syngenta is encouraged to continue with the initiative with the aim of em-powering growers interested in honing skills related to effectively leading and managing against the changing milieu of agriculture.

Agri-sector Unity Forum (ASUF) held an Extraordinary Plenary on the 8th of July 2014. Following the milestone 1st ASUF Policy Conference earlier in the year and the subsequent untimely passing of the Chairperson of ASUF, Ms Ntombi Msimang, a Special ASUF Plenary was called to determine the way forward and elect new leader-ship. Prof Mohammad Karaan facili-tated the meeting and indicated the challenges facing ASUF.

The Plenary elected Mr Japie Grobler as chairperson of ASUF for the next term

and Mr Pitso Sekhoto as the deputy chair-person. “Today’s meeting was important as ASUF had essentially successfully com-pleted its first stage of development and it was necessary to frankly debate critical issues facing the sector in order to eventu-ally move from functional unity to greater structural unity”, said Mr Grobler.

“The most critical issue facing the sec-tor, and also limiting greater unity within the sector, is the question of land reform. To this end ASUF has established a dedicated land reform committee that will

develop a comprehensive, coherent and cohesive land reform plan for submission to government by the end of 2014”, Mr Grobler said. He further added that the ASUF Land Reform Plan would be a pro-active step to address policy and political uncertainty on this issue. This uncertainty has a negative impact on investment confidence, growth of the sector, food security and job creation.

Contact person is Mr Japie Grobler. Email: japie@karookom.co.za, Cell: 082 825 8018.

ASUF Plenary meets to chart way forward