Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries: Strategic Plan and Budget 2009/10 briefing with Minister

Meeting report

Chairperson’s Preliminary Remarks
The Chairperson noted that although the Department was due to make a presentation to the Committee that morning, she was disappointed that it had not provided the Members with the relevant documentation in advance, which she found disturbing and embarrassing. She pointed out that this was a Committee comprising several new Members who were not familiar at all with the newly created Department.

Mr B Mashile (ANC, Mpumalanga) agreed that the Committee needed to register its displeasure when a reconfigured department made such a bad first impression. The failure to provide documents meant that the Members would be mere observers and this was a situation that rendered the Committee effectively unable to work and to assist the Department meaningfully. If it had not been for the fact that this was a new department, he would have proposed that the delegation be sent back. However, he was prepared to accept that they might be facing some teething problems.

Ms Njabulo Nduli, Director General, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, apologised to the Committee, stating that there had been a breakdown in communication between the Cape Town and Pretoria offices.

The documents were eventually provided to the Committee after a brief adjournment.

Introduction and Overview of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries by Ms Njabulo Nduli, Director General
Ms Nduli gave an outline of what she would cover in her presentation, stating that she would present the new mandate and overview of the Department, the realignment of strategic priorities and the integration of Forestry and Fisheries within the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP). The Department would also present its proposed initiatives for ensuring sustainable livelihoods and food security within the sector, and on the budget challenges.  She mentioned that there would be no legislation to be submitted.

Ms Nduli noted that the Department would be rolling out several programmes. The programme on Production and Resource Management would promote agricultural productivity and profitability through the identification of opportunities, sustainable use and protection of land, water and genetic resources and infrastructure development, to ensure household food security. Agricultural production was defined according to a focus on the creation of an enabling environment for increased and sustainable agricultural production. This would occur through appropriate policies, legislation, norms and standards, technical guidelines, and other programmes and services, all aimed at ensuring food security.

The Agriculture Support Services developed and facilitated the implementation of appropriate policies and targeted programmes that aimed at promoting equitable access to the agricultural sector. The Department would also run programmes to do with Trade and Economic Development, to facilitate market access for South African products nationally and internationally. The Department’s Food Safety and Bio-security programme was set up to manage the risks associated with animal diseases, plant pests, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), registration of products used in the agricultural field and provision of food safety to safeguard human life.

Ms Nduli then described the new mandate of the reconfigured Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Dr. Moshibudi Rampedi: Deputy Director-General: Forestry, DAFF, took the Committee through the slide on forestry and regulation. She explained that forestry as a function was a national competency but there were certain provinces that were specified as forestry provinces, because of the extent of forestry they contained. DAFF was responsible for indigenous forest management in provinces such as Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape. It also did community forestry in other provinces where it encouraged individuals and municipalities to plant trees to contribute to its environment. Another component was responsibility for commercial forestry. The State, at national level, owned about 30% of the commercial forests, whilst the rest were owned by private companies. DAFF’s forestry role encompassed the necessity to provide regulation and oversight through the development of appropriate policy and strategy frameworks for sustainable forest management and forest sector development. It was responsible for ensuring effective implementation of legislation, namely the National Forest Act and the National Veld and Forest Fire Act. It also managed the overall system for forestry data, information and knowledge. It made sure that the system was credible and managed it in collaboration with the private sector.

Ms Nduli presented the Department's medium term strategic priorities as outlined in the State of the Nation address. These included speeding up growth and transforming the economy to create decent work and sustainable livelihoods. The Department had also planned the implementation of a Comprehensive Rural Development Strategy (CRDS) linked to agrarian reform and food security.  The Department had increased targeted training, research and extension support programmes through distribution of R170.7 million to the provinces as part of such comprehensive rural development strategy. Another of the critical strategic area was the development of a skills and human resources base. She highlighted the progress made by different programmes and remarked that the Department had seen marked improvements in the implementation of programmes on the ground.

Mr J Venter, Chief Financial Officer, DAFF took the Committee through the slides on estimates of expenditure, highlighting the budget allocation per programme, and summary per economic classification (see attached document for details)

Briefing by the Minister of Agriculture
The Chairperson advised the Minister of the Committee’s complaint about the Department’s tardiness in providing documents to the Committee.

Ms Tina Joemat-Pettersson, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, noted that she had been experiencing similar problems in getting documentation on time from the Department, often receiving documents as she was going into a meeting, or only one day before the meeting. She had addressed a directive to the Director General and the Deputy Director General to impress upon them that there had to be improvements and a turnaround strategy for responding to questions. She had also complained about the standard of documents, which were often unprofessional, being untidy or shoddy in presentation, even when coming from the office of the Director General. She had been handed a budget speech without any figures and a budget vote speech that paraphrased her introduction to the Department's Strategic Plan. She had to re-write her speech on the night before it was due to be presented in the National Assembly because of this. With the new approach to government set by President Zuma, it was totally unacceptable for an old administration to still hold this attitude. However, the problem was not insurmountable.

In terms of the plans, the Minister believed that the Department had a comprehensive rural development strategy for economic development in the provinces and in the towns. It must look at re-prioritising the budget to fit its new priorities. The Minister said, however, that the documents handed out this morning to the Committee, which she had received shortly before she left her office to catch a flight from Pretoria to Cape Town for this meeting, had not been sanctioned by her, and she would have agreed that the Committee should postpone this meeting to give Members an opportunity to study the documents more fully.

The Chairperson responded that the Committee had agreed that it would at least take the briefing, because of the tight parliamentary schedule and time constraints. However, Members would not be able to interrogate the Department fully. She appealed to the Minister to monitor the Department and ensure that the documentation was provided timeously.

Discussion
Mr C de Beer (ANC, Northern Cape) commented that the documents contained a lot of information to digest in a short time. Mr De Beer stated that there was an environmental issue of water pollution in his province, where upstream activities in the Orange and Vaal rivers had a negative impact further downstream. He asked whether there was any funding being provided to assist the Department of Agriculture in the Northern Cape.

Mr de Beer also asked whether there had been any consideration of opportunities for local farmers to export products such as goat meat. He noted that there was a demand for such products, but wanted to know what assistance would be given to get poorer people to these opportunities.

Dr. Motseki Hlatywayo: Director Animal and Aqua Production responded that this was a challenge, particularly with markets in the Middle-East, such as Saudi Arabia. Outbreaks of foot and mouth in South Africa had created a negative perception that affected the exporting of animal products to other countries.

The Minister commented that lack of access to markets was one area that was still denying full growth opportunities to the emerging farmer sector. The Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland troika agreement, which compromised South Africa by allowing cheap goods to enter South Africa through these countries, contributed to restricted trade opportunities. A technical Cabinet committee had been set up and was meeting regularly, to find ways of dealing with such issues.

Mr D Worth (DA, Free State) asked about the sub-programmes mentioned on Slide 42. He wanted to know why there had been under spending in relation to CASP funding.

Mr Bayethe Ndleleni, Chief Director: CASP, DAFF, responded that the reporting cycles sometimes did not correspond with the funding cycles, causing some activities to be unreported at the time that results were generated.

The Chairperson commented that this was not a satisfactory explanation.

The Minister responded that that the spending patterns on CASP were disconcerting and that there was no proper evaluation and monitoring of underspending.

Mr G Mokgoro (ANC, Northern Cape) asked, in relation to promotion of agriculture, whether there was a mechanism in place for dealing with problems such as anthrax epidemics, leading to the deaths of livestock, in the Northern Cape. It appeared that there was insufficient funding, which meant that there were insufficient personnel, for the vaccination programmes in all areas.

Dr. Hlatywayo responded that the nature of anthrax created complexity. It was a bacterial disease, which could result in the contamination of the ground for up to forty years. Mining excavations in the area had resulted in the release of anthrax spores into water. The Department had therefore found it difficult to control the spread of the disease and to define the affected areas. It was working with the (formerly named) Department of Minerals and Energy on excavation procedures to control the disease.

The Minister added, in relation to the comment about the insufficient personnel, that there would be skills development through, for instance, the opening of more agricultural colleges.

Mr Mokgoro requested more information on the MAFISA fund.

Ms Nduli responded that the MAFISA fund had two main elements. It was a saving scheme for co-operatives’ enterprises, and a provided a comprehensive support package for projects requiring financing. The challenges were that there were not enough entities who were accredited as suppliers.

Mr Mashile submitted that Members would find it difficult to interrogate the presentation fully, since the Minister had not apparently sanctioned the document. He commented, nonetheless, that there had been a lot of statements that had serious financial implications.  It was not very helpful for the Department to list a number of initiatives that were not supported by its budget. There seemed to be an element of “cut and paste” in this presentation. The Department's Strategic Plan document was not supported by what was said during the presentation, which in turn should have helped to bring the two together. He felt that there was a possible conflict of roles of responsibilities between this Department and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR).

The Minister responded that Mr Mashile’s comments showed insight into some of the problems. She conceded that the budget and strategic plan were not aligned and did not directly address the needs identified by the new Government. Although there seemed to be an overlap between this Department and DRDLR, the idea was to promote rural development in a more comprehensive way, which was more community based and centred on poverty alleviation, to address problems such as rural to urban migration in a more holistic manner.

Mr Mashile asked whether the Department was obtaining value for money from MAFISA and other funding mechanisms.

The Minister responded that one of MAFISA’s priorities was to create a one-stop concept, which sought to have a co-ordinated approach to agricultural interventions and opportunities so that the common man could find easy access to all the funding mechanisms under one roof.

Mr Mashile asked what was being done about the de-racialisation of agriculture.

The Minister responded that black economic empowerment in agriculture (AgriBEE) was very slow and that there was a need for the re-organisation of boards that still served the interests of white commercial farmers.

Mr Mashile asked what was being done about price-fixing within agriculture, how it would be combated and whether there was any collaboration with the Competition Commission.

Dr. Kgabi Mogajane: Deputy Director-General: Food Safety and Bio-security responded that they were working closely with the Department of Trade and Industry in various areas of intervention, and through a Food Monitoring Committee that it had established.

The Chairperson asked how the Department intended to regulate bio-fuels, in relation to environmental factors.

The Minister responded that the Department’s bio-fuels strategy was still in a period of infancy. It had only been recently forwarded to Cabinet in the form of a framework document, and had not as yet reached the level of an implementable strategy. The Department was also looking at developing agricultural commodities that did not compromise food security. The Ministry would fast track the impact analysis of biofuels so that an implementable strategy could be developed.

The Chairperson asked whether the Department had a climate change strategy.

Dr. Motseki Hlatywayo: Director Animal and Aqua Production responded that they had noted the impact of climate change, specifically in terms of disease outbreaks. The Department would resuscitate compulsory vaccines for the emerging sector, putting together a programme through its Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) cycle of funding. The Department had also made plans on disaster management and wanted to develop early warning systems to improve its capacity.

The Chairperson asked about the progress made with regard to irrigation schemes in the Eastern Cape.

The Minister responded that the sustainability of the irrigation schemes would be a measure of success in terms of infrastructure development.

The meeting was adjourned.