Chairperson, hon Ministers present here and hon members, agriculture is the backbone of nations in the entire world. No nation can survive without agricultural activities. It is important that our government has identified agriculture as an essential contributor to the national gross domestic product, GDP. It is an economic sector that can absorb the majority of our people to be trained to become successful farmers.
Even if they do not have a formal education, this is the time that the department must demonstrate its commitment by supporting the small commercial farmers. Chair, when I grew up as a small boy, our forefathers were engaged in ploughing and growing their own crops. They used to harvest enough to support their families and preserve some for the future. There used to be no hunger, no famine. The advent of the apartheid system, that introduced stringent measures under the pretext of a betterment scheme that was promulgated in 1952, denied our people the right to continue ploughing for themselves.