By Nangamso Mabindla
11 August 2006

FOLLOWING, an indaba held in King William's Town, Buffalo City looks set to stimulate agricultural and rural development in its 2 500 square kilometres of land.

Speaking at the indaba, the city's executive mayor Zintle Peter said that the city was busy with its Development Strategy (CDS) which aims to uplift poorer communities.

"The CDS develops pro-poor urban governance through participatory decision-making via policies, strategies and actions which create jobs to make the city inclusive, productive and sustainable," said Peter.

However, for the city to reduce poverty and create employment, it needed to align its goals to those of the Provincial Growth Development Programme (PGDP).

"The PGDP calls for a programmatic approach that promotes household's food security by expanded small holder production, development of commercial agriculture through optimum use of the highest potential agricultural land; a focus on land distribution in the longer term, land tenure reform to release land for poor households and for new commercial farming enterprises," Peter said.

To be on a par with the provincial government, the city, through its Integrated Development Plan (IDP), identified agriculture as a key component of its economic growth strategy.

"Farming and agro-processing are priorities because of climate, suitable land area and sufficient water. There are a number of agricultural opportunities which have been researched and acted on and many others which have potential," added Peter.

The city needed to explore these opportunities in order for agriculture to be successful.

"Our competitive edge will decide our trade-offs and final choices, but for now we must move to pick the low-hanging fruit in agriculture and construct a viable rural development strategy," Peter concluded.