Annual Performance Plan 2011/2012 - Department of Agriculture ...

PART A: STRATEGIC OVERVIEWInfrastructural InvestmentRural Development is about enabling rural people to tackle poverty by optimally utilising the naturalresources available to them. In order to effectively empower rural people, it is necessary thatgovernment commits itself to major infrastructural investment in these rural areas to redress thestructural imbalances that have confined rural communities to a life of restrictions and hardship. TheDepartment has identified the need to invest in Livestock Dams, Fencing, Dip tanks and ExpandedIrrigation Schemes as the key components of the rural infrastructure investment.Agricultural CooperativesThe Department will continue to assist agricultural cooperatives in securing markets for their produceas it has in the past. Currently, the Department has linked 23 cooperatives to supply fresh vegetablesto hospitals in and around the KZN Province.Knowledge & Information ManagementExtension services is the foundation of the Department’s farmer support programmes in whichfarmers, particularly communal farmers, receive sound farming advice and techniques to improvetheir enterprises. The Department has increased the number of its extension officers and has furtherappointed about 200 Extension Assistants, who will further augment the extension service to thecommunity and increase the Department’s representation to all the municipalities of this Province. TheExtension Recovery Programme, which seeks to capacitate Extension Officers further and empowerthem through upgrading of their current qualifications, is on-going. The Department has also procuredand introduced new technology including the Smart Digital-Pen System, laptops with built-in GPScoupled with 3G cards to allow the Extension Suite Online to capture information on crops and livestockin the field. All this aims to improve the nature and substance of extension services. Furthermore,2,175 extension trainees have received training in Project Management, Co-operative Management,Primary Animal Health & Livestock Management and this will sharpen their knowledge and the advicesthey provide to client farmers. Further capacity development measures will be continued this year aswell.1.2 Socio Economic ProfileGlobal food prices showed a modest recovery by mid-2009 following signs of improving globaleconomic financial conditions. However, the prices of certain commodities such as maize remainunder pressure. According to the United Nations, food prices are set to rise by as much as 40% overthe coming decade amid growing demand from emerging markets. The warning is that agriculturalproduction and productivity must be stepped up. The global food system is heavily dependent onpetroleum, not just for shipping goods from one location to another, but also for production.The Consumer Price Index (CPI) released by Statistics South Africa in May 2010 indicated thatfood prices increased by 0.9% from April 2009 to April 2010. Domestic prices of wheat, white maizeANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN 2011/123