NERPO AND NAFU WILL JOIN FORCES TO STRENGTHEN TIES WITH THE KEY ROLE PLAYERS OF LAND AND AGRARIAN RE
20 Jul 2005
Sunday, the 24th of July 2005, is to mark a significant day in the emerging agricultural sector, when the National Executive Councils of both the National Emergent Red Meat Producers Organisation (NERPO) and National African Farmers Union (NAFU) will jointly host the Chairpersons’ Welcoming Dinner in honour of the newly appointed key role players of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs. These will be Mr. Glen Thomas, Mr. Masiphula Mbongwa, newly appointed Directors-General of the National Departments: Land Affairs and Agriculture respectively, as well as the new CEO of Land and Agricultural Bank of South Africa, Mr. Alan Mukoki and the new Chairperson of the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC), Mr. Salaam Karaan.
This historic occasion precedes the National Land Summit that will be held in Nasrec, Johannesburg from the 27th -31st of July 2005. During this occasion NERPO and NAFU will unveil their joint policy position on how government strategies should be reviewed to expedite the land and agrarian reform programme. NERPO is carrying a mammoth task of mobilising black emerging livestock farmers, unemployed youth and women in agriculture with a view of ensuring their meaningful participation in the agricultural sector within the context of the AgriBEE framework.
It has however became evident that this enormous task can neither be achieved by government nor organised agriculture alone, hence the need for an integrated approach that will see government getting into partnerships with farmer associations, commodity groups and all other key role players in a collective action to fulfil this noble goal.
These key organs of the agricultural sector are also expected to take advantage of the occasion by unpacking government strategies to ensure a meaningful participation of farmer associations and commodity groups on implementation of its programmes. NERPO represents emerging livestock farmers who owns over 47% of the total livestock in South Africa and are said to only contribute less than 5% in the formal red meat markets. The emerging farmers are faced by a string of challenges amongst others, access to agricultural land, farm infrastructure, markets, credit, and many more. These challenges warrant healthy working relations between all organs of the agricultural sector.
In the same vein, NERPO and NAFU will host a Special Imbizo to meet with Provincial MECs for Agriculture and their Heads of Department at the Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) on the 25th July 2005. A need to strengthen and/or resuscitate working relations with Provincial Departments of Agriculture emerged after numerous reshuffling of MECs for Agriculture has taken place in provinces such as Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, and Free State.
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Enquiries:
Mr. Aggrey Mahanjana
Group Managing Director
Tel : +27 (0) 12 361 9127
Fax : +27 (0) 12 361 4430
Cell : +27 (0) 82 556 7297
Or
Siyabulela Makunga
Manager: Marketing & Corporate Communications
Tel : +27 (0) 12 361 9127
Fax : +27 (0) 12 361 4430
Cell : +27 (0) 82 483 7155/ +27 (0) 83 677 8631
Email : siyabulelam@nerpo.org.za website www.nerpo.org.za
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