Tabling his department’s 2020/21 adjustment budget during a virtual Legislature sitting, MEC William Bulwane said women and young people remain excluded from mainstream farming.

He called on the youth in the province to participate in agricultural projects and pursue studies in this field. Presenting the province’s R712.2 million budget, Bulwane acknowledge how famers in the province are still hard-hit by drought and announced that the bulk of this money will go towards drought relief projects and ensuring food security amongst other necessities.

Bulwane’s call was reiterated by Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC Makalo Mohale, who announced that the Free State economy is projected to contract by 3.7% as all the sectors except agriculture are expected to experience a decline.

Bulwane said that the department has so far assisted 189 students with full-time bursaries in scarce skills and related fields such as Veterinary Science, Engineering and Veterinary Technology over the past few years. In this time, 176 students received opportunities to study internationally of which 46 already completed their studies. 

“We are happy to announce that some of our students studying internationally will be completing their studies in this financial year 2020/21. From UTAD in Portugal 35 students will be completing their studies in August 2020. Of these, 18 are doing Animal Science, seven are doing Oenology and ten are doing Agronomy.

“Only one student will complete in the next Financial Year. From Nanjing University in China, seven students will be completing in July 2020. Five are doing Veterinary Medicine and two are doing Biotechnology”.

Tabling the province’s budget on July 7, Finance MEC Gadija Brown announced that the Agriculture Department is allocated an amount of R712.2 million for the 2020/21 financial year, R854.1 million for 2021/22 and R903.2 million for the 2022/23 financial year

She highlighted that an additional amount of R500 000 included in the above allocation is earmarked for procurement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE’s) as the country continue to fight against the spread of the Coronavirus.

OFM News