The Commission for Gender Equality presented on its proposed campaign called One Woman, One Hectare of Land’. The campaign aims to mainstream gender equality, for it was proposed that the State should allocate one hectare of land, for the growing of food, to the poorest rural female-run households. It was believed that this would help alleviate poverty and empower rural women. It was pointed out that where women had land, their families generally were better nourished, better educated and able to move on.

The preservation, development and sustainable use of agricultural land are of vital importance to ensure long-term food security. On a global level, food security is closely linked to Goal 1 of the Millennium Development Goals, namely to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by, amongst others, halving, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

The Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) jointly presented on the implementation of the One District, One Agri-Park programme in the context of the framework of the rural economic transformation model.

The turnaround strategy for the Recapitalisation and Development Programme (RADP) was presented against the backdrop of the Committee’s public hearings on 4 and 5 February 2015 on the implementation of the programme. The evaluation process conducted by the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) indicated that even though RADP had made some progress towards achieving its intended objectives, there was room for significant improvement.

The Chief Land Claims Commissioner from the Commission of Restitution of Land Rights presented the strategic plan for 2015-2020 as well as the Annual Performance Plan 2015/2016 to the Committee. She emphasised that there was still a need for the Commission to be clearly delineated in function and fact from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) particularly since the Commission reported directly to the Minister.

The preservation, development and sustainable use of agricultural land are of vital importance to ensure longterm food security in South Africa. These principles of food security as well as an integrated, inclusive rural economy underpin the core focus areas of the National Development Plan, Vision 2030 (NDP).

The Department of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries is currently developing a project in conjunction with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) to create Agri-parks in locations throughout South Africa. These Agri-parks aim to involve smallholders and local producers in the entire process of agriculture to address both food security and poverty. The Department hopes to fight issues such as the 14 million hungry South Africans, unused potential farmland, and the inequality between private agricultural business and the people.

The Select Committee on Land and Mineral Resources having conducted oversight at the Council of Geosciences (CGS), the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP), from 21 – 22 October 2014 reports as follows:

1. Background and Introduction

The Chairperson went through the A-List and verified that the amendments had been effected in the Agrément South Africa Bill [B3B-2015]. Members moved to adopt the Bill, and it was adopted.

BE IT ENACTED by the State President, the Senate and the House of Assembly of the Republic of South Africa, as follows:-
1. In this Act, unless the context otherwise indicates(i) “agricultural land” means any land, except-

This study aimed to link land cover/use change to water quality in an important water supply coastal catchment. The approach followed a spatial and temporal analysis of historical catchment land use change to assess how changes influenced water quality and river flow in the Touws and Duiwe Rivers, southwestern Cape, South Africa. Each sub-catchment has unique characteristics which influence land use and water quality and the purpose was to analyse each one separately.

The push to turn commercial large-scale agricultural into a driving engine of the Zambian economy, in a situation where the protection of access to land is weak, can risk pushing small-holder farmers and peasants off their land and out of production with severe impacts on the people’s right to food,” Ms. Elver said at the end of her first official visit to the country