The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development recently launched a R57.2 million support programme to enable small-scale farmers in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) to buy the tractors, implements, fertiliser, seeds and seedlings needed to make their farms commercially successful.
The Farmer Support Package (FSP) will enable communities to fight poverty and hunger by cultivating the land available in their villages and backyards.
According to KZN MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi food insecurity remains a critical challenge affecting people’s social conditions due to rising unemployment, poverty and inequality.
Hence, “the FSP initiative will help the province go back to the basics of producing its own food by providing dedicated and efficient support to potential commercial farmers,” said Sithole-Moloi.
The launch was held in Dondotha which is situated in uMfolozi, where Sithole-Moloi also highlighted that FSP will be the engine that powers the growth and development of multi-planting season campaigns, which will see under-utilised land being better used to grow food.
“The introduction of the FSP today, is a clear statement that we are determined and stand ready to provide a dedicated and efficient support package to all the agricultural value chains that are key drivers to the province’s sustainable economic growth and transformation,” she said.
The MEC also noted that buying existing commercial farms is not the only way to enter the agriculture sector. Another way, she said, is by using ‘the very land available in our villages and our backyards’.
