South Africa : Communities urged to grow food to deal with high food prices

By Michael Appel

Pretoria - The Department of Agriculture is advocating communities to use fallow land to grow food to help deal with the issue of high food prices in the country.

Director General (DG) at the department, Njabulo Nduli said her department undertook the first phase of increasing production in the country by 10-15 percent through the Llima/Letsema campaign.

The campaign, launched in Jacobsdal in the Free State in August 2008, aims to revive the traditional community building; self help synergy where citizens collectively take responsibility by contributing towards finding solutions to pertinent issues.

"In this case, the issue of high food prices was addressed through Llima/Letsema in order to increase food production by making use of all available land, especially land lying fallow in the rural and peri-urban areas.

"The campaign also encourages household gardens and stimulates ploughing and planting activity through the distribution of starter packs," the DG highlighted.

The campaign has so far been rolled out in the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, Free State, Limpopo, Western Cape KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

Through the campaign, over 14 000 varying agricultural interventions in the form of seedlings, vegetable tunnels and other immediate production requirements defined by the individual provinces were distributed, she said.

"[Also] we have concluded the Five-Year Review of the Strategic Plan for the Agriculture Sector which is a joint plan developed by the department and agricultural unions in 2001.

"This review confirmed the importance of the three core strategies of enhancing equitable access and participation in the agricultural sector, improved global competitiveness and profitability; and ensuring sustainable resource management," she said.

The DG explained that the transformation of the sector would be further boosted by the Khula-Mafisa Fund which was signed into inception last month.

The fund extends financial services to emerging farmers and agri-businesses.

Ms Nduli highlighted that her department was also preparing for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and that they have started increasing food production.

"We are also attentive to protecting and ensuring control against unwanted, dangerous agents and alien species at our borders.

"We now have five sniffer dogs at work at the OR Tambo International Airport through the Sedupe K9 Programme," the DG said.

Another of the department's programmes is the Land and Agrarian Reform Programme (LARP), which incorporates the Department of Agriculture, Department of Land Affairs and Provincial Department's of Agriculture.

The objectives of LARP is to distribute five million hectares of land to 10 000 beneficiaries, increase the number of new agriculture entrepreneurs by 10-15 percent, provide universal support, increase production by 10-15 percent, and increase market access by 10-15 percent. - BuaNews