Solving rural problems requires establishing and prioritising goals and programmes within goals. Explicit goals are needed to guide implementation and to provide standards by which programme performance can be measured. Six strategic areas with problems sufficiently pervasive to justify an appropriate provincial role are: Income and employment policy; Education and retraining; Eliminating rural poverty; Using and protecting natural resources; Improving rural health delivery systems; and, Financing rural services. The Gauteng Agricultural Development Strategy has discussed extensively the performance of the agricultural sector. The agricultural sector has generally maintained a steady growth rate of between 0.2 to 2.5 percent per annum over the last half decade. Nevertheless, this growth is considered inadequate for poverty reduction, particularly in rural areas. The agriculture sector has focused mainly on producing more food to enhance food security and reduce poverty, with the ultimate goal of self-sufficiency in basic food requirements. The constraints and obstacles hindering the development of the sector include: Competing land uses, which has affected high potential agricultural land; Inadequate access to and/or delayed delivery of inputs and lack of timely advice; Poor transfer of knowledge from researchers to farmers, inadequate access to extension services and over -centralisation of the management of extension services; Decline in the use of improved farm input packages, particularly improved seed, fertilizers and agro-chemicals; Very poor infrastructure and lack of comprehensive market information; Inadequate credit for agricultural production and marketing; Weak management of co-operatives and of confidence; members’ loss Slow implementation of the Land Reform process; Dominance of low technology, with the majority of smallholder farmers relying on the hand hoe; and Dependence on rain, thus subjecting agriculture to the whims of nature. To tackle these constraints and to strengthen efforts to improve food security, the Gauteng Provincial Government has introduced several measures. It has also made various administrative structural changes to support farmers, especially emerging farmers. Targeted communities have been supported through backyard food gardens, community food gardens, food banks and several other measures. To support its overall approach the Gauteng Provincial Government has adopted the following strategies: Improved agricultural production incentives that encourage the production of non-traditional export crops. Support to research and extension to improve its effectiveness, and to promote private sector participation in production, processing, storage, input supply and marketing. Improved rural infrastructure. Reduced post harvest losses. Introduction of an Early Warming and Crop Monitoring System to more regularly and systematically assess the national food situation.
Solving rural problems requires establishing and prioritising goals and programmes within goals. Explicit goals are needed to guide implementation and to provide standards by which programme performance can be measured. Six strategic areas with problems sufficiently pervasive to justify an appropriate provincial role are: Income and employment policy; Education and retraining; Eliminating rural poverty; Using and protecting natural resources; Improving rural health delivery systems; and, Financing rural services. The Gauteng Agricultural Development Strategy has discussed extensively the performance of the agricultural sector. The agricultural sector has generally maintained a steady growth rate of between 0.2 to 2.5 percent per annum over the last half decade. Nevertheless, this growth is considered inadequate for poverty reduction, particularly in rural areas. The agriculture sector has focused mainly on producing more food to enhance food security and reduce poverty, with the ultimate goal of self-sufficiency in basic food requirements. The constraints and obstacles hindering the development of the sector include: Competing land uses, which has affected high potential agricultural land; Inadequate access to and/or delayed delivery of inputs and lack of timely advice; Poor transfer of knowledge from researchers to farmers, inadequate access to extension services and over -centralisation of the management of extension services; Decline in the use of improved farm input packages, particularly improved seed, fertilizers and agro-chemicals; Very poor infrastructure and lack of comprehensive market information; Inadequate credit for agricultural production and marketing; Weak management of co-operatives and members’ loss of confidence; Slow implementation of the Land Reform process; Dominance of low technology, with the majority of smallholder farmers relying on the hand hoe; and Dependence on rain, thus subjecting agriculture to the whims of nature. To tackle these constraints and to strengthen efforts to improve food security, the Gauteng Provincial Government has introduced several measures. It has also made various administrative structural changes to support farmers, especially emerging farmers. Targeted communities have been supported through backyard food gardens, community food gardens, food banks and several other measures. To support its overall approach the Gauteng Provincial Government has adopted the following strategies: Improved agricultural production incentives that encourage the production of non-traditional export crops. Support to research and extension to improve its effectiveness, and to promote private sector participation in production, processing, storage, input supply and marketing. Improved rural infrastructure. Reduced post harvest losses. Introduction of an Early Warming and Crop Monitoring System to more regularly and systematically assess the national food situation.
Final%20Gauteng%20Rural%20Development%20Strategy.docx