AsgiSA Eastern Cape shows off its implementation credentials

High impact priority projects in former Transkei take shape.

Eleven months since the appointment of the AsgiSA Eastern Cape CEO, the organisation has made significant progress and is now only days away from full steam implementation of one of six high impact priority projects says AsgiSA Eastern Cape (EC) chairman Saki Macozoma.

AsgiSA Eastern Cape (EC), under its agriculture and agro-processing programme, plans to manage 1 million livestock units, put 40,000ha under irrigated cultivation and 500 000 ha under dry-land cultivation. Production is focused on food security for communities followed by industrial crops for agro-processing and bio-fuel production. Crops targeted over the medium to long term are maize, soya beans, canola, sunflowers, sugar cane, flowers, sugar beet and fruit production. Other targeted produce includes diary, meat and leather.

The integrated cropping programme, which entails intercropping of maize, soybean, canola and sunflower, is set to get underway now that good rains have fallen in the region.  More than 6,400 ha will be planted in the rural parts of the Transkei region covering the following municipalities: Mhlontlo, Matatiele, Mbashe, King Sabatha Dalindyebo and Ingquza local municipalities. Each area planted is made of commercial blocks of land measuring on average about 300ha. 

"This milestone talks to the heart of why Asgisa EC was established. It is to make a tangible difference in the lives of rural people in the province. Our plan remains to create a vibrant and sustainable rural economy by unlocking the region's natural assets such as land, water and scenic beauty.

"There is a dire imperative to show our people their potential, reduce unemployment and poverty where seven in every ten people live with poverty," says Macozoma.

He says the organisation's ultimate goal, together with its strategic public and private sector partners, is to restructure the economy of rural Eastern Cape province and in particular, the Mzimvubu area which is one of the most underdeveloped.

CEO Simpiwe Somydala notes four achievements for the year which focus on the two lead projects, namely agriculture and agro-processing, and forestry.

"The implementation of the integrated cropping programme signals a major contribution to establishing better food security for the 1,2 million people in the former Transkei. Without food on the table every day, it is very difficult for farmers to be talking or even dreaming about a better life. Food security is a key element of the project because it ensures that our people can sustain themselves until the medium to long term goal of selling maize and other crops to national markets, is met," says Somydala.

Over the next five years, Somdyala estimates that 111,000 hectares, 400,000 livestock units as well as four maize mills, ten feedlots, five pack houses and a meat processing unit will be established. For the forestry programme, 100,000 hectares of suitable land for afforestation will be identified and scoped.

Achievable milestones are in place for the other four programmes which are tourism, water resource development, hydro and alternative energy, and human settlement.

He adds that due to the magnitude of the agricultural programme, it is critical that a formalised engine is developed to manage all the project's parts.  A key instrument in this implementation is the agribusiness model which formalises the relationships between the project's strategic partners such as farmers, financiers, development finance institutions, bulk input suppliers, other suppliers as well as those involved in off-take agreements.  Piloting of the model will start in earnest in 2009 and Mhlontlo has been identified as a pilot programme. 

Other key services which the model delivers is access to markets, skills development, agricultural input support, business, field and technical support schemes.

"It is essential that there is a ‘mentoring' body which can assist farmers who may not have all the skills to fully maximise their land resources.  Without the necessary skills, these families, whose land is their most important asset, source of security and status, will find it extremely difficult to farm, notwithstanding the difficult economic circumstances which we are experiencing.

Another milestone for Somdyala is the progress achieved in the forestry programme.  Asgisa Eastern Cape is working closely with the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry to overcome some of the licensing challenges associated with the sector. The efforts have led to decisions which will bring certainty to license applications covering some 30,000ha.

Over the next 25 years, the programme expects to support the growth of the province's forestry base through new afforestation, improved management of existing forests, and the development of downstream manufacturing opportunities. The increased forestry plantation area is expected to add 1,5 million m³ of timber per annum, which will lead to further opportunities for wood for processing.

One of the longer term projects is to look at how the Mzimvubu River resource can be used.

Somdyala is optimistic and says that a number of parties have shown an appetite for hydro energy. The river is the source of 2,600 million cubic tons of water. Yet today only five percent of this resource is used for irrigation and other uses. There are over 19 locations which are also being looked at in terms of viability for the building of a dam.

"2008 has been a good year for the organisation. However, there is no doubt that without our strong, robust and transparent relationships with our municipalities, organised farmers and government, we would not achieve these goals," says Macozoma.

Talking at an earlier workshop, Mxoli Poto, chairman of the Tsomo Valley Farmers Co-operative and president of the National Farmers Union in the Eastern Cape said that farmers in Elliotdale needed the support of an organisation such as Asgisa. 

"The presence of AsgiSA Eastern Cape will change our livelihoods for the better. They came at the right time where our fields have been lying flat for a long time. We could not address hunger issues without cropping because in the rural areas cropping is our life. We are confident that the black farmers will step forward," Poto ends.

AsgiSA Eastern Cape is also to involve this co-operative which has 15 farms comprising of 7,400 hectares, in its livestock programme.

Poto, who has been a farmer for 15 years, says this initiative "will really change the lives of farmers."