There are many ways to respond to Statistics South Africa’s recent stats indicating that our economy contracted by 1.3% in the second quarter of 2015, according to preliminary estimates of real gross domestic product (GDP) they released this week.
In the release, StatsSA said: “The quarter-on-quarter decrease in overall economic activity was characterised by five of the 10 main industry groups shrinking in size, while the other five experienced some growth.”
They said the agriculture industry experienced the largest fall in activity, contracting by 17.4% quarter-on-quarter. This was attributed to drought experienced by some provinces, which affects field crops, shrinking production.
Though this is a cause for concern, it doesn’t derail our plans to use agriculture to grow the provincial and national economy.
In his 2015 state of the nation address, President Jacob Zuma announced the start of Agri-Parks, aimed at revitalising agro-processing and agriculture in the country, as part of his Nine-Point Plan.
In the announcement, Zuma said government would invest about R2-billion to promote the establishment of Agri-Parks or co-operatives and clusters in each of the 27 poorest district municipalities – including six from our province – to transform rural economies.
As he reported on the progress made in this regard in his mid year report, the Eastern Cape government’s plans to establish Mega Agri-Parks in the province are at an advance stage.
For implementation, government has set selecting sites, developing business and production plans, consulting with all stakeholders, assessing farm potential and market analysis, implementing plans to increase production, identifying gateways and feeder sites, deciding on enterprises or commodities for each Agri park and indicating the type of support required for each park as key milestones for their launch.
Because of the progress made thus far, business plans for Agri-Parks in Alfred Nzo, OR Tambo, Chris Hani, Sarah Baartman, Amathole and Joe Gqabi district municipalities have been finalised and submitted to Rural Development and Land Reform department, which processes all business plans.
At this stage, Chris Hani Agri Park business plan has been approved by the co-ordinating department, Rural Development and Land Reform. Multi-million rand funding for identified approved sites will be organised.
We have engaged various commodity groups, farmers and communities in deciding sites for all Agri-Parks, developing production plans, gateways and feeder sites linked to the parks.
We can confirm that we have agreed on the park sites. We are certain now that even in areas where there were concerns, we have addressed all issues and all of us are moving towards the establishment in unison. We will now focus our energies on approving the other five remaining business plans and perfecting implementation.
Agri-arks in this province will be in Matatiele, Butterworth, Sundays River valley, Queenstown, Aliwal North, Mthatha supported by feeders in Ingquza Hill, Ngqushwa, Nkonkobe, Great Kei, Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, Mbashe, Makana, Blue Crane Route, Emalahleni, Intsika Yethu, Elundini and Mthatha.
Matatiele, Butterworth, Sundays River valley, Queenstown, Maletswai, King Sabatha Dalindyebo will be where pack houses and distribution centres will be located to receive produce from the fields and send them to the markets.
The province has also resolved what types of commodities and enterprises each of the Agri-Parks will focus on. In this regard, Alfred Nzo district will focus on beef, sheep, maize, vegetables, poultry, fishing, fruit and goats.
Amathole will focus on beef, sheep (wool), goats, horticulture, pineapple, chicory, citrus, pomegranate, tomato, poultry, piggery, dairy, high value crops and vegetables.
Saraha Baartman’s enterprise focus will be on maize, citrus, chicory, fodder and deciduous fruit with Chris Hani focusing on maize, soya, beans, dairy and vegetables.
Joe Gqabi will invest in maize, lucerne, beef, poultry, peach, and vegetables while OR Tambo will focus on sheep (wool), beef, milk, high value crops, fruit, vegetables and maize.
The decision for each park was influenced by the production plans and commodity potential of each district municipality and after an environmental analysis assessing the suitability of each commodity.
Some of our departmental infrastructure programmes, which are in our strategic plans and annual performance plans currently being implemented, will play a major role in supporting primary production of these parks.
As the MEC, I am satisfied with the status report and we will continue to work with national government, ministers leading these departments, municipalities and various agencies of government to realise these Agri-Parks to the benefit of our people and the economy of this province.
Together with other provinces, we presented our report on the progress of establishing Mega Agri-Parks in the province to the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform MECs’ meeting held in Johannesburg last week Friday.
At the risk of appearing to be blowing my own trumpet, our provincial report was hailed as one of the best because it showed evidence-based progress supported by completion of all key milestones with only approval and transfer of funds standing between us and the launch of the first-ever Agri-Park in the Eastern Cape.
This, together with the impressive agriculture businesses of women in the province, prove that, when working in unison, agriculture can help hasten our development. The winning female entrepreneurs who will represent us in the national awards have our support because they are simply the best and from them we learn resilience to defeat our challenges and to grow.
The drought challenges which caused decline in production challenges us to include data from government-funded or supported programmes when adding data for these statistics to give a proper picture of things. In the main, the province ploughs on dry or irrigated land, giving us an added advantage in terms of yielding quality produce.
No drought, decline, or any challenge formed against our economic growth must be allowed to figure and challenge the prosperity of our people and growth of their communities.
Colleagues and stakeholders key in this agriculture must continue to work harder until we create more jobs for current and future generations, until there is no poverty in our province, until entrepreneurs all benefit from the economy and until rural economies prosper through benefits from these parks and other aspects of our economy.
Mlibo Qoboshiyane is Eastern Cape Rural Development and Agrarian Reform MEC