3 Provinces project a triumph

Joint statement by:
Mr Cobus Dowry: MEC for Agriculture in the Western Cape
Mrs Tina Joemat-Pettersson: MEC for Agriculture in the Northern Cape
Mr Lumkile Ngada: Head of Department of Agriculture in the Eastern Cape

The birth of the New South Africa, a decade ago, changed the role of agriculture in South Africa and its provinces. The same sector that had been dominated for years by successful commercial farmers was and still is in a process of transformation with a need for assistance in establishing, capacitating and supporting emerging farmers.

Notwithstanding the above, there are continuous challenges facing the agricultural sector and therefore the need for greater cooperation across provincial borders as agriculture is the one sector in South Africa which can act as catalyst in the process of economic development.

The Western, Northern and Eastern Cape signed a joint Declaration of Intent in August 2002, and further impetus was given to this agreement by a government delegation representing the political executive as well as senior officials form the various departments of Agriculture of these three provinces. Existing international agreements formed the basis of interaction with potential partners in developed countries. The aim of the visit to the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom was to find European partners for a shared funding scenario, designed to deliver four main outputs namely, capacity building of inter provincial and inter departmental human resources expertise, technology development as part of research, technology development as part of veterinary services and the development and expansion of provincial qualitative and quantitative business, policy and legislative decision making models. A further aim was to facilitate international market access for products produced by the target group farmers.

Various funding organisations, centers of tertiary training, research institutes, laboratories and NGO¡¯s were visited during which these three provinces made presentations and outlined the purpose of the 3 provinces project.

We as a delegation are extremely pleased with the outcome of this visit. We are confident that not only have we achieved our initial goals with this visit but we have also laid a solid inter-provincial working relationship which will have immediate benefits for the 3 provinces and the country.

We are proud to state that agriculture as a whole will benefit from this visit including the following:

• Resource poor farmers in the provinces,
• Extension workers will benefit from training as well as the improvement of information dissemination, collaborative research and materials.
• Research staff, veterinary experts, engineers and engineering technicians, and agricultural economists through international interaction and sharing of expertise.
• Commercial farmers who can benefit from improved laboratory, information, diagnostic and decision making services.
• The economy as a whole as the capacity to support commercial and resource poor farmers in complying with international standards and contribute to their global competitiveness, and
• International competitiveness of the agricultural sector.

During the visit an inter-provincial management committee as well as research, veterinary services, capacity building and decision models steering committees were established and will continue with the necessary further development of strategies, preparatory work for roll out and implementation in the respective provinces.

We as representatives of the three provinces are extremely proud of what we have achieved in the common interest of our three provinces. Agriculture in general but also the wider agricultural sector and role-players will benefit from this historic agreement and partnership.

Enquiries: Jan Bosman
Cell: 083 775 5312