The Portfolio Committee on Agriculture successfully began its week-long oversight visit to the Eastern Cape yesterday by visiting farmer production support units, including Ncera Macadamia Nuts Farm in Ncera Village in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality and Zanyokhwe Farmer Production Support Unit in Keiskamahoek in the Amahlathi Local Municipality, to assess the state of their operations.
The committee heard that Ncera Macadamia Nuts Farm, which was launched in 2005 by the then Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform for the development of an orchard and bulk water supply, is not operationally and is not meeting the objective for which it was established.
The Chairperson of the committee, Ms Dina Pule, expressed her dismay at the contrast between the positive profile of the project presented to the committee by provincial Department of Agriculture officials and the disappointing appearance of the same project during the committee’s visit. Members of the committee cautioned officials against this sugarcoating of reality.
In contrast, the committee was happy with the state of the Zanyokwe Farmer Production Support Unit at Keiskamahoek. Committee members were satisfied with the management of the project and were convinced that it is reaping positive economic spin-offs for the surrounding community.
The committee heard that between 70-90 farmers formed a cooperative and that capacity building and training takes place at the project, which empowers local farmers in productive farming methods in the Keiskamahoek area.
In welcoming the briefing and the walkabout at the project site, Ms Pule said the Zanyokhwe Farmer Support Unit is an example of the ideal projects the committee hoped to see in the province. She said the committee would like to see thriving farms that deliver food to the people and ensure food security. She said no nation should depend on another country for food.
She called on the provincial Department of Agriculture to form concrete partnerships with well-established private sector entities for financial and other material support to ensure the success and sustainability of the project.
Africa Fact: Africans were the first to organise fishing expeditions 90,000 years ago. At Katanda, a region in northeastern Zaïre (now Congo), was recovered a finely wrought series of harpoon points, all elaborately polished and barbed. Also uncovered was a tool, equally well crafted, believed to be a dagger. The discoveries suggested the existence of an early aquatic or fishing based culture.
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