Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism
Answered by:
Hon Ivan Meyer
Question Number:
18
Question Body:
Question by Hon Masipa.
With regard to the funding process of the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP):
- What was the rationale for changing the CASP from Schedule 4 to Schedule 5, (b) What (i) successes and (ii) challenges has his Department experienced following the change, (c) what are some of the successes and (d) how is his Department embedding the successful practices;
- whether, with regard to the challenges, his Department has proposed changes to smooth out the operation going forward; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Answer Body:
- This action was not clear to the Province as it was a decision between the National Department of Agriculture and National Treasury.
b (i) The Department had no option but to adhere to the grant framework and adjust to the prescribed grant framework. The Department and commodity partners could get to a land reform success rate of projects supported through the grants of 83% in the last 5 years. This study was completed by an external service provider using 39 indicators.
(ii) The biggest challenge was the time lag between application and implementation of projects. This time lag can be anything from one (1) year to 18 months. This time delay is due to the quarterly tranche payments from the national department.
- To mention a few, we delivered the following outputs in the past year:
- Farmers’ days - 26
- On-site farm visits – 4 393
- Skills Audits completed - 62
- Household gardens implemented – 3 930
- Smallholder farmers supported - 41
- The Department is following a commodity approach which supports the department with all the capacity-building initiatives. Furthermore, they are also assisting with market readiness and access to our farmers.
- Yes, we are consistently in communication during quarterly engagements with the national colleagues explaining the challenges experienced during the implementation process. We did explain that agriculture is linked to seasons and that we are constantly dealing with biological assets and “window periods” during which farmers must respond. However, it must be noted that this is a national grant, and the criteria and framework are for all provinces and we need political support and support from other provinces to change the funding schedule.
Date:
Friday, November 15, 2024
