STATEMENT BY THE RT HON PRIME MINISTER

DR B.S.S.DLAMINI

At DONORS ROUNDTABLE BREAKFAST MEETING FOR NATIONAL INTEGRATED TINKHUNDLA FRUIT TREE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

AT ESIBAYENI LODGE, MATSAPHA

WEDNESDAY 6 MAY 2015

Honourable Ministers

Excellencies of the Diplomatic Corps

Chief Executives from the Business Community

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and gentlemen

 

I am honoured to be with you all this morning and to welcome you to a gathering in which we are aiming to raise resources for the expansion of the ongoing National Integrated Tinkhundla Fruit Tree Development Programme, housed under SEDCO’s One Household One Product Programme.

Launched by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade in October last year, this is a programme which arguably meets as many key objectives in reducing rural poverty as almost any other initiative. So let me start by emphasising that all donors will have the satisfaction of knowing that the resources given will have a direct and tangible impact on the lives of rural folk, with the added feature of performance measurability as the months go by.

Measurability is an almost essential feature of a programme such as this. We are briefing our potential donors with the statistics of what we have achieved already – that is, more than 5,000 fruit trees in the tinkhundla of Siphofaneni, Ntfonjeni, Maphalaleni, Mahlangatsha and Ngwemphisi. And we have seen the four high schools – Osuthu Methodist, Nkhaba, Mshengu and Masibekelawe – planting a further 400 fruit trees. All those trees are visible, measurable and growing. Our congratulations go to all of the participants!

Those statistics tell us that the programme is off the blocks and sprinting ahead, demonstrating vibrancy and commitment. But there is no time to waste. There is serious need out in the rural areas of Swaziland. Expansion beckons, and with a real sense of urgency.

What is so wonderful about this project? I think the Programme’s slogan captures the justification in one punchy and meaningful sentence – “planting fruit trees for a healthier, wealthier and greener community.”

Those of you who have enjoyed a good breakfast this morning will, at this moment, be well aware of how good it felt, and still feels, to enjoy a tasty, satisfying meal. That is the first point to make because too many of our people are not able to enjoy a similar experience. And those of you who took a portion, or even portions, of fruit with your breakfast will be aware, not only of the delicious taste, but also the health-giving qualities of fruit in the diet.

Furthermore, by enabling fruit production that meets, and goes beyond, personal needs, the Programme is giving our rural population the opportunity to generate income without having to migrate to an urban environment. It thus serves the valuable purpose of keeping people in their home community, if that is what they want, and enabling adult married couples to work and stay together.

And many, many times I have attended functions at which I have reiterated that very urgent need within our society – the need to develop a stronger entrepreneurial culture. That means wanting to move beyond subsistence activity and into growing and making produce and giving services of value, all producing an income. Growing fruit trees is, as the saying goes – right in there!

So, in short, the Programme will create a critical mass of relatively diverse fruits grown by Swazi homesteads, leading to increased food availability and income generation, creating wealth and eradicating hunger and poverty, whilst promoting a green Swaziland. That greenness will come from the trees taking the carbon dioxide out of the air, thus reducing global warming, as well as the presence of trees reducing land erosion.

The bulk of our fruit requirements are imported. This amounts to around E73 million a year. Yet there is sufficient fenced land and available water to grow many more fruit trees than are currently in existence, and generally grown for subsistence purposes only. The Programme not only recognizes that the country’s agro-ecological zones are suitable for growing most types of fruit, but also makes available high value seedlings that will produce good fruit after only three to four years. It is very much in keeping with Government’s mantra of “development unusual” by selecting an innovative and intensive approach to growing the country’s economy and reducing poverty.

The plan is to continue using the cluster approach where every homestead joins a cluster of 100 homesteads. The primary purpose of this configuration is to procure inputs, as well as market outputs, collectively. The arrangement enjoys the economies of scale, stronger collective bargaining and knowledge sharing. Seedlings of a nominated type will be given to participants at zero cost, and each homestead’s responsibility is then one of irrigating each of the ten or so fruit trees and generally tending to the plants.

The Programme limits the degree of direct assistance but clearly the sky is the limit. A broad growth in our entrepreneurial culture should give rise to a subsequent expansion growth in production across the land, and make that elusive noble transition from importer to exporter a rewarding reality.

Simultaneously the Programme will seek to promote value addition through agro-processing, converting the primary fruit produce into jams, jellies, fruit cheeses, juices and juice concentrates, frozen fruits and dried fruit products. The progress made in implementation of our Investor Road Map will have a direct impact on the ability of small and medium sized enterprise to respond to these future opportunities. And, in due course, we hope that the Programme will expand upstream as well as downstream by seeking to localize the production of the high value seedlings through new or strengthened nurseries.

The Programme is effectively presenting a very significant window of opportunity. For that reason it has high level Government support, with six Ministries involved and a Technical Committee established by Cabinet and responsible for overseeing implementation.

What we need is more resources in these times of tight fiscal constraint. We have to finance the fruit tree seedlings, fertilisers, chemicals, pruning materials, transport for distribution and close monitoring up to the first harvest. Donors will be reassured that there will be a Work Plan developed by the Technical Committee which will contain time-bound activities, together with quantified and measurable outputs and outcomes. That Plan will be finalized and costed as a high priority. The subsequent active monitoring will include keeping donors informed regarding planting and production statistics, as well as other measures of performance.

The expansion programme is ambitious because it has to be. The planting is targeted directly at the heart of where people are in need of nourishing food and additional income – at homesteads, neighbourhood care points and schools especially throughout the rural areas.

We have been fortunate to identify the Champion Sponsors – ILLOVO, SWAKI and DUPS Insurance - who have generously agreed to sponsor the pilot sites where this programme has started. On behalf of His Majesty’s Government I wish to thank those Champions for that gesture. We now would like to invite other private sector businesses to join this hugely beneficial programme and identify themselves with a sharply focused, and highly visible, poverty reduction initiative that will be of such benefit to so many of the less fortunate Swazis in the Kingdom.

Thank you.