In his state of the nation address on 13 February, President Jacob Zuma said agriculture is a key job driver and a provider of opportunities for entrepreneurship. He also praised the agricultural support programme, Fetsa Tlala, which was launched last year, saying it was producing brand new exporters.
“The first 88 smallholder farmers in this programme supplied the United Nations World Food Programme with 268t of maize and beans to send to Lesotho last month. We expect this number to increase,” said Zuma.
In an exclusive interview with Farmer’s Weekly, agriculture minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson briefly summarised her impressions of the State of the Nation Address.
