Agriculture
(1) (a) Which community food garden or food-security projects is his Department currently supporting;
(2) whether his Department has begun supporting any food garden or food-security project during COVID-19; if so, what are the relevant details;
(3) (a) what are the criteria used by his Department to decide whether to support community food gardens and (b) what type of support does his Department provide once a decision to support a community food garden has been made;
(4) whether his Department has a policy on urban agriculture; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(5) whether the City of Cape Town or any other municipality in the province has a policy on urban agriculture; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(6) whether his Department has a list of municipal-owned land across all municipalities that is being leased to farmers and or community food gardens; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(7) what is the (a) total extent in hectares of private agricultural land in the province and (b) percentage of such land owned by (i) black South Africans (that is Africans, coloureds and Indians), (ii) white South Africans and (iii) foreign nationals?
(1) (a) We are currently supporting the following Food Security Projects 2019/20 (audited figures) & 2020/21 (planned)
YEAR | 2019/20 | 2020/21 Planned | 2020/21 Delivered (Qrt1) | 2020/21 Planned (Qrt 2 - 4) |
Community and School Gardens | 128 | 76 | 26 | 50 |
Households Gardens | 1 003 | 800 | 2 465 |
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(2) The Department supported the communities and delivered 2 465 household food gardens and 26 community and school gardens across the province.. The Department provided demonstrations on how to plant and care for the garden to communities as well as continuous advice.
- (a) Applicants are accessed and scores are allocated to assist with the prioritisation of community food gardens based on the following criteria:
- Access to land with a security of tenure
- CRDP areas Involvement of women, youth and differently abled persons
- Potential impact of support on viability of project
- Sustainability and economic viability of project
- Technical and Management experience
- Previous Government Support
- Job creation
- Investment per person
(b) The type of support provided covers:
- Infrastructure - i.e, irrigation, fencing, storeroom, water tanks, tunnel, greenhouse
- Inputs - i.e, seeds, seedlings, compost, and fertilizer
- Tools – i.e forks, rake, and spade
- Power implements – for example, the walk behind Rotavator
- The Department developed the Food Security programme mainly for urban agriculture. The development of the Food Security program was informed by the National Policy on Food and Nutrition Security (NPFNS) of August 2013.
The Food Security program consist out of the following elements:
- Support to Community and School projects,
- Support to households with a “suitcase” or a starter pack,
- Hosting of an annual World Food Day event.
- The City of Cape Town has its own Urban Agricultural Policy that was approved by Council on 7/12/2006, with reference C27/12/06. Municipalities outside of the Metro do not have a policy on urban agriculture, as these are largely rural areas.
- The Department does not have a list of municipal owned land that is leased to farmers, as the Municipalities manage their own commonage land. The Department only supports beneficiaries who do have access to land.
- This information is housed with the Deeds Office, which is part of the National Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development. The Department therefore does not have access to the above-mentioned information.
