R1bn boost for farming

75 000 small-scale producers to benefit from presidential stimulus package

ABOUT 75 000 small-scale farmers are to benefit from R1 billion set aside by the government as part of a presidential employment stimulus package.

The package consists of farming input vouchers worth R1 000 to R9 000 that farmers can obtain when applications open on Thursday.

This development was announced by Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza yesterday.

According to Didiza, when President Cyril Ramaphosa tabled the economic reconstruction and recovery plan in October, he announced an employment stimulus package that would create jobs and support the livelihoods of many struggling citizens.

“It is in this context that R1bn is allocated to support 75 000 smallscale farmers whose production was disrupted by the pandemic,” she said.

Didiza said while agriculture was in general negatively affected, subsistence farmers and household producers remained the hardest-hit sector.

“These are producers who utilise land in the backyards of their homes and gardens in communal areas. It is these producers who create bulwarks against … food insecurity at household level,” she said.

Didiza noted that the department’s policy did not address their needs and the group was defined as unbankable, yet its role was important in providing food security for many families.

“As part of the employment stimulus, these are producers the government will support,” she said.

Didiza said it was planned that 50% of the beneficiaries would be women, 40% youths, and 6% people with disabilities, and the remainder unemployed military veterans, farmworkers and farm dwellers.

She said during implementation of the programme, the department would employ members of the National Rural Youth Service Corps and unemployed agriculture graduates to work as verification officers.

“This youth employment initiative will support in excess of 6 000 jobs,” she said.

Didiza said the prospective beneficiaries of the funds would be South Africans aged 18 and older who were unemployed, particularly those active in agricultural production who had not received support from the department in the current financial year.

The applications would open on Thursday and close on December 22.

Applicants would be notified whether or not their applications had been successful in the second week of January.

Acting deputy director-general Kokotsi Moeng said subsistence farmers “have been the hardest-hit. That is why the minister is targeting them”.

Didiza said the amount to be allocated to the farmers was adequate. “I am comfortable that it will reach a number of people,” she said.