The North West MEC of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Desbo Mohono, is requesting that all farmers across the province grant access to the field workers so that they may conduct their work since the data they collect would allow the government to assist and monitor the performance of farmers.
This information embarkment by the department will help identify successes and failures and indicates where more concerted action is required to rectify deficiencies as they move towards improving the provincial GDP through agricultural contribution.
"Smallholder farmers are critical role players in the growth of the economy. Therefore, I am calling on all farmers to cooperate with our officials who will be collating this data, as it will help the department to plan. We recognise the importance of smallholder farmers and their contribution to improving our people's livelihood and to our province's economic growth," Mohono said.
To enable a focused realisation of the Agriculture and Agro-processing Masterplan (AAMP) and its Provincial Agricultural Refocus Strategy (PARS) imperatives, the North West Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will begin a process of verifying its farmer production and marketing information in the upcoming weeks in the spirit of Accelerated Services Delivery (Thuntsha Lerole Programme).
The primary objective of the Accelerated Service Delivery Programme is to mobilise communities to be part of a solution in addressing service delivery challenges confronting the province. The initiative also aims to create a platform for constant feedback to communities on progress made in providing services.
The project is expected to run until the end of December this year (as phase 1). Officials from the department will be deployed to all four districts of the province to undertake this task and to confirm its client base, both in terms of size and scale and mode of operation.
Our field officials will be easily identifiable to ensure legitimacy and avoid risks of farms Security Bridge," said Mohono.
Mohono has also encouraged farmers to register on the Department Database.
