Creating hope for the future
2006-05-25
THE MEC for Agriculture in the Western Cape Cobus Dowry, announced that a pilot project (Mafisa), will be launched for the Western Cape during this financial year in the Boland and parts of the West Coast District Municipalities.
Farmers that meet certain criteria will be eligible for a production loan of up to R100 000 at a very affordable interest rate.
This announcement was made during his budget speech in parliament on Friday. The theme for this budget is “Creating Hope for the Future from the Earth”. Allocated to the Department of Agriculture for the financial year 2006/07, is an amount of R254 million.
This amount is planned to be spent on the department’s different programmes of Administration (R37,059 million), Sustainable Resource Management (R35,368 million), Farmer Support and Development (R78,865 million), Veterinary Services (R25,673 million), Technology Research and Development (R45,924 million), Agricultural Economics (R8,494 million) and Structured Agricultural Training (R22,651 million).
Dowry said although he is thankful that the Land Reform programme has produced an overall success rate of 54,2% in comparison to the world norm of 19%, it was not good enough.
Land Affairs department thus set targets for the financial year where 20 141 hectares of agricultural land will go to 3072 beneficiaries, 38 hectares to 368 beneficiaries for sustainable human settlements, industrial and economical development and 1300 hectares of commonage.
To get a full copy of the budget speech, contact spokesperson for the Western Cape Ministry of Agriculture Alie van Jaarsveld at 483
4930 or E-mail at avjaarsv@pgwc.gov.za
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