Department to appoint over four-hundred (400) Assistant Agricultural Advisors
The North West Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (NWDARD) will this year appoint a total of four hundred & forty-three (443) Assistant Agricultural Advisors on a three-year contract to bolster its extension and advisory services. MEC Desbo Mohono made this announcement today, Thursday 19 May 2022 at the Provincial Legislature when she was tabling the NWDARD budget vote.
This follows a pronouncement made by both the President and the Minister on the appointment of 10 000 Assistant Agricultural Extension Advisors across the country. Out of this 10 000, 443 will be coming from the North-West Province.
“Extension and advisory services is the coalface platform for the department’s interaction, liaison and support to farmers and communities. Agricultural advisory through this service are at the forefront of service delivery and are the face of the sector to clients and the public,” MEC Mohono expressed. “They play an important role as information intermediaries between scientists and farmers, translating, and adding value to agronomic and economic information of use in agricultural management decision making,” she added.
An amount of R11.1 million from the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme will be used in this regard.
During the 2021/22 financial year alone, the department managed to support a total of seven thousand nine hundred and ninety-two (7 992) smallholder producers across the province with agricultural advisory services through the Extension Recovery Programme (ERP).
In as far as as job creation is concerned and as part of contributing towards addressing the triple challenges of poverty; unemployment & inequality in the province, the NWDARD managed to create an overall of 979 jobs through Land Care Programme; Rural Development initiatives, the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) as well as through the Environment and Culture (EAC) Sector Work Opportunities.
At the end of the 2022/23 financial year, a total of 1 147 work opportunities would be created throughout the province.
Source: Government of South Africa