Less money for agriculture

Owing to sustained underspending by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries its budget was cut by R158 million. The budget cuts mainly concern the remuneration of employees, goods and services, and the conditional allocation to provinces. This is part of Cabinet’s action against departments that underspend their budgets in consecutive years. The department’s budget for next year will be cut with R210 million and the following year with R200 million. The department’s total budget for the 2015/16 financial year is R6,4 billion in comparison to last year’s R6,7 billion.

DAFF will focus on food security by supporting food producers to construct and repair irrigation schemes. The Agricultural Research Council will receive R2,5 billion, including R170 million to upgrade the foot-and-mouth vaccine production facilities. The National Agricultural Marketing Council will receive R34,6 million, Onderstepoort Biological Products R268,4 million and the Perishable Products Export Control Board, R600 000.