Download
1 / 33
330 likes | 332 Views
This report highlights the achievements, challenges, and underspending of agricultural grants in South Africa, including the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Grant (CASP), Ilima/Letsema Projects Grant, and Land Care Programme Grant. It covers key outputs, issues faced, and the transfer of funds to provinces.
E N D
Select Committee on Appropriations Provincial Agriculture Grants Presenter| National Treasury | 17 October 2017
Comprehensive Agricultural Support Grant (CASP) • Inception – 2004/05 • The purpose of the grant is to provide effective agricultural support services, promote and facilitate agricultural developments by targeting beneficiaries of land reform, restitution and redistribution, and other black producers who have acquired land through private means and are engaged in value-adding enterprise domestically, or the export market; to address damages to infrastructure caused by floods. • Key outputs: • Farmers supported (subsistence, smallholder and commercial ) • Farm infrastructure provided and repaired • Hectares under agricultural production • Beneficiaries of CASP trained on farming methods • Beneficiaries of CASP accessing markets • Jobs created
CASP issues • Challenges experienced in the implementation of infrastructure related projects as a result of the newly introduced IDMS processes requiring signing off of the professionals. • Spending in agricultural colleges has been woeful, with only 20 per cent of funds allocated in 2016/17 being spent. Monitoring has to be stepped in 2017/18 to ensure performance improves. • Poor planning in provinces, which results in poor performance, due to a lack of competent and dedicated staff to manage the grant. • Of late, drought experienced in many provinces negatively affected their planting of crops and the implementation of projects. • Monitoring by DAFF still needs attention, even though funds from the grant were redirected to enhance the monitoring capacity at DAFF. • The transfer of funds to provinces does not correspond with the activities and cash flow requirements in provincial business plan, hence the significant unspent funds in provincial bank accounts.
Ilima/Letsema Projects Grant • Inception – 2008/09 • The purpose of the grant is to assist vulnerable black South Africans farming communities to achieve an increase in agricultural production and invest in infrastructure that unlocks agricultural production. • Key outputs: • Land under agricultural production (crops and livestock) • Hectares of land rehabilitated and expanded irrigation schemes • Yields per unit area • Beneficiaries/farmers supported • Jobs created
Ilima issues • The current staff establishment in some provinces do not provide for dedicated staff or units to manage specific programmes. • Drawn out procurement processes still an issue, especially on inputs and repairs to tractors. • Drought experienced in many provinces negatively affected their planting of crops. • Non-attendance of training courses by beneficiaries who have indicated that they need the training, contributes to poor performance. • The transfer of funds to provinces does not correspond with the activities and cash flow requirements in provincial business plan, hence the significant unspent funds in provincial bank accounts.
Land Care Programme Grant: Poverty Relief and Infrastructure Development • Inception – 2001/02 • The purpose of the grant to promote sustainable use and management of natural resources by engaging in community based initiatives that support the pillars of sustainability (social, economic and environmental), leading to greater productivity, food security, job creation and better well-being for all. • The key outputs of the grant include: • Hectares of rangeland protected and rehabilitated • Hectares of land where weeds and invader plants are under control • Kilometres of fence erected • Junior Care participants involved in the programme • Awareness campaigns conducted for land carers
Landcare issues • Delays in the procurement process resulting in late appointment of service providers resulting and late delivery of materials. • Good summer rains in some provinces led to the proliferation of alien invasive species such as slangbos, which need more effort and inputs. On the other hand, construction of gabions for example were delayed. • Projects lists by provinces not fully thought through, hence requests to change projects list on a regular basis. • The transfer of funds to provinces does not correspond with the activities and cash flow requirements in provincial business plan, hence the significant unspent funds in provincial bank accounts.
Conclusion • Spending on all agriculture grants in the first quarter has been historically poor. The average spending in the first quarter of the past three years are as follows: CASP 11%; IlimaLetsema 8% and LandCare 6%. • Transfers to provinces over the same period averages: CASP 20%; IlimaLetsema 19% and LandCare 10%. This increases borrowing costs, as some of the transfer could have been delayed. • It seems quite clear that transfers made to provinces are made in block percentage, which do not align to planned activities in provincial business plans. • Most activity around the three grants occur in the third and fourth quarter, while business plans are aligned to this, transfers need to reflect this as well. • Drought has had a negative impact on performance with 8 of the 9 provinces declaring disasters. This has negatively affected performance as well
Conclusion continued • Procurement and the attendant delays continue to stifle performance and delivery, especially in the procurement of equipment and inputs. • Dedicated and qualified staff are lacking in some provinces, negatively affecting the timely implementation in terms of the business plan. • DAFF’s capacity for monitoring must be enhanced to identify weaknesses and support service delivery in provinces. Funds were allocated to DAFF to enhance capacity, but little progress has been madein filling posts. • Quarterly reviews are conducted with the DAFF to review performance and deal with challenges that provincial departments face. • National Treasury participates in the National Assessment Panel for agriculture grants which assesses projects and provincial departments’ readiness to implement. Although projects are deemed ready, procurement issues negatively affect implementation
Conclusion continued • Workshops are conducted annually, where DAFF and provincial departments of agriculture are workshopped on the granted frameworks, conditions and other compliance issues related to the Division of Revenue Act. • National Treasury as part of our monitoring responsibility, conducted provincial visits where the performance of agriculture grants, amongst others, is discussed
