The Portfolio Committee’s Content Advisor provided a summary of the key financial and performance recommendations contained in the 2013/14 Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report, and described those that had been brought to the attention of the Minister of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), as well as to the Minister of Finance.

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.

Reversing the legacy of the 1913 Natives Land Act. The root of the land question today arises out of the pervasive process of land alienation that dispossessed the majority of South Africans of their land over the past few centuries. 2013 is the centenary f the 1913 Natives Land Act, which was the first of number of discriminatory laws that reinforced the massive dispossession of land from black South AFricans

In order to create credibility and sustainability between policies, to avoid political confusion and to reassure “investor confidence”, a clear agri-food policy package needs to be in place. To achieve this, policy packages should be constructed to give coherence, with an explicit goal and set of objectives, underscoring accountability to delivery. Considering current policy debates, the questions pursued in this paper are: does a clear vision guide existing and emerging agriculture and food policies and are a clear set of measures defined to achieve this vision?

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.