MEC Nonceba Kontsiwe on commercialising Agri sector in Eastern Cape

MEC Kontsiwe says strategic land aggregation, reviving irrigatation schemes key in commercialising Agri sector

Putting people to work and building industries for inclusive growth will be driven through aggregation of communal land parcels into commercial units for improved production and agro- processing. The department is committed to support communal farmers to identify, assess potential, conduct free soil test, package, develop production and resource plans.

The Department will initiate partnerships with local communal farmers, Department of Cooperative Government and Traditional Authorities (COGTA) traditional authorities, municipalities, and potential investors targeting grain, livestock and high value crops. The Land Use Practitioners, Scientists, Economists, Engineers and social facilitators will produce land suitability reports that will guide the investment in the agriculture sector.

The Department will work with national government to address issues of land tenure. In the coming months, I will be engaging with all traditional authorities and explore various forms of partnership and resource mobilisation to ensure that rural areas utilise their arable land for production.

Getting Irrigation Scheme Back to Production
Our irrigations schemes are underutilized due to poor infrastructure, community conflicts and lack of investment. The department through partnership with Office of the Premier (OTP), Provincial Treasury (PT), National Treasury (NT), World Bank Group (WBG) in South Africa and Infrastructure South Africa are currently developing an infrastructure business plan to revitalize ten irrigation schemes, with an estimated investment of R3 billion 

Five irrigation schemes are currently partnering with Amadlelo Dairy for milk production. Three irrigation schemes are focused on commercial vegetable production, and two are dedicated to Lucerne production.

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is implementing bulk infrastructure upgrade in the Ncora, Keiskamma, Qamata, and Shiloh irrigation schemes.

The dairy industry in all the irrigation schemes is facing serious challenges of water availability that has seriously affected production and threatening business viability. To this end, DRDAR has collaborated with the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) to rescue these enterprises, this partnership led to R9 million allocation to procure feed for dairy cows.

Our approach to commercializing the irrigation schemes is to repurpose the ECRDA to act as a trade and business aggregator for all the different commodities such as dairy, vegetables, grain, Lucerne in the form of off- take agreements to create products for domestic markets. The DRDAR will continue conducting social facilitation to ensure that landowners are prepared and ready to receive and participate in the investment initiatives that seek to bring back production in all the schemes.

To maintain production momentum in the irrigation schemes, the ECRDA will engage landowners with the view of entering into medium to long-term off-take agreements for all the commodities produced in the schemes. This will enable the ECRDA-DRDAR to establish vegetable storage facilities (storage and cold rooms), nurseries, and feed millers to ensure that food and animal products are readily available for the markets.

Regarding dairy, the department, in partnership with ECRDA, ECDC, and the Land Bank, will develop a community dairy financing program that will enable local landowners to own, and lease their dairy cows to the existing dairy operation. This initiative will increase beneficiation for landowners as well as the ownership of assets through directly leasing of dairy cows against current practice of leasing from commercial farmers.

This model could be expanded to dairy farming operations in other suitable areas across the province. Furthermore, the department plans to increase the irrigated area in the province by developing small irrigation systems. We will conduct feasibility assessments on existing irrigated areas such as Tandergate in Chris Hani District and Mantusini in OR Tambo. 
NB: This statement must be attributed to MEC Nonceba Kontsiwe.

For more information, please contact:
MEC’s Spokesperson: Atule Joka: 071 608 9041/071688 4231
DRDAR Communications: Thozi Manyisana: 082 494 3600