Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza say as part of government’s economic stimulus package, the department will provide input vouchers to subsistence farmers to retain jobs.
Didiza said this when she, along with Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille, briefed the media on the pillars of the economic reconstruction and recovery plans for their respective departments.
“The department will ensure the retention of jobs through self-employment by subsistence farmers through input vouchers.
“The target will be those subsistence producers who are producing at household level in peri-urban and rural areas with a maximum land size between a quarters to one hectares,” she said.
Didiza said the department is working with mobile giant Vodacom with a view to open applications as soon as next month, where farmers will be able to use their phones to apply for the vouchers to eliminate paperwork.
This was building from the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic had illustrated the importance of both commercial and smallholder producers in safeguarding food security and promoting self-employment in rural and peri-urban areas.
The Minister said the COVID-19 regulations showed the centrality of the informal market traders in localising and distributing food to low income households that live hand-to-mouth on a daily basis.
“Working with social partners, the department is working with the Solidarity Fund initiative [and] traditional councils on interventions that focuses on communal farming areas to support small-scale and substance farmers to promote self-employment and support food security,” she said.
As part of implementing an effective land reform programme and inclusive growth, the department has developed a beneficiary selection and land allocation policy as well as the comprehensive producer support policy, which are guiding the rapid release of land for production of food and the provision of finances to farmers.
