House Chairperson, Minister, the land reform approach from 1994 onwards has been focused on developing a class on black commercial farmers. This has obviously not worked because that was not a backed-up plan by a solid programme of support from government. As a result, many emerging black farmers find themselves locked up in an agrarian value chain that marginalised all of them. A few considered introducing a new land and agricultural strategy, whose foundation is to promote and support smallholder agricultural farmers.
The MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, LAND REFORM AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT:
Thank you very much, hon Mokause, for your question. It is necessary for me to indicate that from 1994, there have been forms of addressing the needs for agriculture as well as human settlements. You would recall that certain interventions, starting from '94 was through the Settlement and Production Land Acquisition Grant, Splag, assisted people who wanted to acquire land for whatever purposes, even for livelihoods, to do so.
We then had the land reform for agrarian development, where people would actually make their own contribution and get loan agreements. But, you are right: There had been weaknesses that we have never actually had targeted farmer settlement support to those people who
want to become commercially viable as a state in a concerted way. Those are the issues that we are reviewing.
Some of the interventions that had been made, we are building on them, to ensure that we don't just give people land without adequate support for them to become fully-fletched commercial farmers, even though they are operation at a smallholder. You can be commercial, whether smallholder, medium or large scale, depending on the enterprise that you have chosen, but also on the agro-ecological zone where you are farming.
In the Northern Cape, 1 000 hectares can be smallholder because of the ecological zone of that area - it is drier. Therefore, the carrying capacity of the land - particularly if you do a livestock - can never be the same with somebody who is farming 250 hectares in the Eastern Cape, where the vegetation as well as water resources is better than in the Northern Cape.
So, for me, what is important in the question that you are raising is that as government, when we undertake land reform, we must put targeted support until those individuals can be able to stand on their own. Thank you very much.