Parliamentarians are greatly concerned that the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development has had to slice some R2.4 billion from its R16.8 billion budget. According to a recent report in the Daily Maverick, ‘an air of disappointment and disbelief’ was palpable when the department made its presentation to show how it would be adapting to the straitened circumstances facing the country.
The issue, it seems, is not that funds were cut – inevitable under the circumstances – but where these were effected. Most of the R2.4 billion will be found in the programmes dealing with food security and land reform, both restitution and redistribution. The balance of the reductions would come from the Agri-BEE fund.
There was also consternation about the assistance that government was providing to small-scale farmers, since of the 55 000 farmers who had asked for assistance from the Covid-19 Agricultural Disaster Support Fund, only 15 000 were granted it.
The disappointment may be understandable, but the disbelief is not.
Budget for land is low
Looking at the February Budget Review, the R16.8 billion stood alongside the R1.8 trillion that constituted expenditure budgeted for 2020/21. In proportional terms, this was not even one percent of the budget.
And this was in fact slightly down on the 17.2 billion spent in 2019/20, or just on 1% of the total. In 2018/19, an amount of R16.6 billion was spent (or 1.1% of the total), in 2017/18 some R15.2 billion (1.1%) and in 2016/17 the figure was 15.3 billion (1.2%).
Since budgets represent a concrete commitment of resources, they are a decent gauge of a government’s priorities. So in other words, rhetoric aside, land and agriculture have long been a sort of budgetary stepchild – spoken about sometimes (quite often these days, in fact), but largely ignored or fobbed off with hand-me-downs.
Nor do things look a great deal better in the coming years. February’s Budget Review projected spending of 17.9 billion in 2020/21 and 18.5 billion in 2021/22. Neither of these numbers amounted to as much as one percent of the overall projected spending.
Indeed, land acquisition and redistribution in the original budget – this being the programme for providing land to those who need it and is a key part of supporting the emergence of new farmers – stood at R1.2 billion for 2020/21. This represented a substantial decrease from the figure of something under R1.8 billion in 2019/20. The amount was slated to rise to R1.3 billion in 2021/22 and then to a little under R1.4 billion the following year.
Restitution, meanwhile – the programme meant to redress historical dispossession – fared a little better. It was budgeted for in February at R3.4 billion (down from R3.6 billion in 2019/20), some R3.3 billion in 2018/19, R3.1 billion in 2017/18 and R3.3 billion in 2016/17. The restitution budget was projected to rise to R3.4 billion in 2021/22 and a little short of R4 billion the year after.
Perhaps even more telling is the budget for extension services. Properly deployed, such support can be of great value to farmers. But in February, these were budgeted for at a modest R604 million. And the quality of support on offer has come in for criticism.
Is land a priority for the government?
These are not large numbers, certainly not for an issue pegged by the ruling party as one of the most critical to the country’s future.
As for priorities, a comparison has previously been made between the spending on land reform and that spent on VIP protection services. This comparison is still astounding. In February, VIP protection was budgeted for at R3.4 billion. This was around the same amount as the restitution budget, and well ahead of what was being put into redistribution. And the protection service lost just R70 million in the recent adjustments.
As I have previously remarked, if this doesn’t say everything one needs to know about government’s real priorities, it nevertheless says a lot.
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