Africa Agriculture News

Africa Agriculture News

South Africa: State Farm ‘Research’ Body Spends 96 Percent of Budget On Salaries

Johannesburg — The Agricultural Research Council (ARC) had a 26% vacancy rate but spent 96% of its budget on salaries and a scant 4% on research, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said yesterday.

At the heart of the failure of more than 90% of agricultural land redistribution projects is government neglect in provid ing services to new farmers, such as agricultural extension services and the research services of the council.

The government has been criticised over many years by opposition parties for the way in which the council has been managed and funded.

Yesterday, in reply to a parliamentary question from Democratic Alliance MP Laurie Bosman, Ms Joemat-Pettersson noted that the vacancy rate at the council increased from 22% on March 31 2008 to 29% a year later. On March 31 this year it stood at 26%.

This means that in the 2007-08 financial year, 2469 of the 3170 posts were filled, with 701 being vacant. Two years later, at the end of the 2009-10 financial year, the number of posts available had declined to 2801 and 2216 were filled, leaving 585 vacant.

If the posts available had remained at their previous level, the percentage of vacancies would have been even higher than 26%.

Ms Joemat-Pettersson also said “96% of the budget is spent on salaries and 4% towards research purposes”. This means if the council were fully staffed it would not be able to afford to pay its salary bill.

In its core business area of agricultural research, there are substantial vacancies. In research support, research support technical, senior research support officials and researchers of various grades, the council is short of 447 bodies.

In the areas of labourers, administrative support, artisans and senior management, there are 138 vacancies. In order to fill the vacancies, the council would require almost R100m more on the budget.

In a recent interview, Ms Joemat- Pettersson told Business Day that prior to 1994, “w e had the Agricultural Credit Board, which gave low- interest loans to white farmers … payable over a very long period. They allowed commercial farmers to grow. When black farmers were brought in, we gave them land without access to finance, without access to fertiliser, seeds or implements.

“We threw the baby out with the bath water. The baby was stillborn and the infant mortality was going to be very high and the casualties were our land reform projects.”

FROM: BUSINESS DAY