Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Administration
Posted Fri, 06 Aug 2010

‘Making the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme a reality.’

Vision
The department’s vision is to have a world-class, united and prosperous agricultural sector and vibrant, equitable, sustainable rural communities.

Mission
The mission of the department is to facilitate integrated development and social cohesion through participatory approaches in partnership with all sectors of society.

Role and responsibilities
The following priorities inform the mandate of the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Administration:
• Comprehensive rural development strategy linked to land and agrarian reform and food security
• Speeding up growth and transforming the economy to create decent work and sustainable livelihoods
• Strengthening the skills and human resource base
• Sustainable resource management and use.
• Building a developmental state including improvement of public services and strengthening democratic institutions

The department plays a key role in dealing with the existing high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment within the province. To deal with these mammoth challenges, the department has various agricultural support programmes, including Masibuyele Emasimini (food security), Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP), Land Care, Agribusiness, and Research and Development. It isthrough these programmes that the plight of the peasant and emerging farmers is addressed. The support rendered involves the supply of agricultural starter packs, provision of mechanisation services and other basic infrastructure.

Through the Land Administration Unit, the department is implementing the land-use management system to ensure that socio-economic development programmes are in accordance with development needs and trends. This programme assists in the allocation of title deeds to relevant beneficiaries.

Rural Development
The rural development mandate arises from the third Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) objective: comprehensive rural development strategy linked to land and agrarian reform. This relates to the department’s responsibilities of stimulating agriculture production with a view to contributing to food security, and providing pre- and post-settlement support in the implementation of land-reform programmes.

The policy provides for inter-governmental and departmental coordination role of the following:
• Aggressive implementation of land-reform policies
• Improvement of service delivery to ensure quality of life
• Skills development
• Implementation of a development programme for rural transport
• Revitalisation of rural towns
• Support for non-farm economic activities
• Institutional capacity development
• Co-operative development

Agriculture
The White Paper on Agriculture provides the central role in building a strong agricultural economy and reducing inequalities by increasing incomes and employment opportunities for the poor while conserving natural resources.

The following are key responsibilities:
• Build an efficient and competitive agricultural sector
• Support emerging diverse structures of production with a large increase in the number of successful smallholder farming enterprises
• Conserve natural resources and promote the use of sustainable resources

Land Administration
It is the department’s responsibility to contribute towards maximising the potential of the scarce but high-quality agricultural land and to ensure that the correct land is set aside for tourism and other industries, on which the economy of the country is heavily dependent.

The key responsibilities for the department are as follows:
• Municipal support on spatial planning
• Tenure upgrading to increase title deeds to beneficiaries of rural towns and settlements
• Town establishment to increase availability of land and erven for development that could be transferred to individual beneficiaries
• Land-use administration by processing of land-use applications and secretariat services to statutory bodies

Initiatives
The key strategic initiatives of the department are as follows:
• Comprehensive Rural Development
• Masibuyele Emasimini
• Skills Development
• Agricultural Risk Disaster Management
• Provincial Land Care
• Veterinary Services

Key personnel:
MT Malinga, MEC
NL Sithole, Head of Department
Key contact:
ZJ Shabangu, Deputy Director Media Liaison
Tel: +27 13 766 6067 Fax: +27 13 766 8429
Email: infoardla@mpg.gov.za
Physical address: 1st and 2nd Floors, Building 6, 7 Government Boulevard, Riverside Park, Nelspruit 1200
Postal address: Private Bag X11219, Nelspruit 1200
Website: www.mpumalanga.gov.za












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