AGRICULTURAL NEWS - The government has no intent of running agriculture with its agri-parks concept. Rural South Africa, however, has to be transformed and the government believes that agri-parks will make a huge contribution in this regard.

 

The chief director: Infrastructure Development of the department of rural development and land reform, Nasele Mehlomakulu told the Agbiz conference that the department is consulting as widely as possible with stakeholders to ensure the success of the project.

“The interests of commercial farmers and the private sector will always be taken into consideration. Commercial farmers are already represented on all structures that concern agri-parks. Agri SA or Agbiz often represents them. They state your case.”

Mehlomakulu said that the challenge is to make sure that the private sector is doing what it should be doing and the government is doing what it is supposed to be doing. “The roles at the parks itself are being investigated by a consultant appointed by the department. The management structure is as yet not well defined, but the aim of the investigation is to determine all roles and responsibilities,” he said.

But what is an agri-park?

According to Mehlomakulu an agri-park is a “networked innovation system of agro-production, processing, logistics, marketing, training and extension services, located in a district municipality. “As a network, it enables a market-driven combination and integration of various agricultural activities and rural transformation services.”

Mehlomakulu said that agri-parks are in line with the National Development Plan (NDP), which strives to create one million additional jobs in the agricultural sector by 2030 with an additional one million hectares under production.

 

The New Growth Path (NGP) aims for 145,000 new jobs in agro-processing by 2020 and 300,000 new smallholders. The Medium-term Strategic Framework envisages one million jobs in the rural economy by 2030.