BREAKING NEWS – One more day to apply for Covid-19 farmer relief fund  

Farmers who qualify for the Covid-19 farmer relief fund have one day left to submit their applications with the deadline set for tomorrow (Wednesday).

Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Spokesperson, Joshua Kwapa indicated that thus far Limpopo has received more than 1 500 applications and reiterated that the aim of the fund is to sustain food production and food security in the country amid restrictions imposed by the national lockdown. Kwapa further emphasised that an amount of R1,2 billion has been allocated by the national department to help financially distressed small scale farmers in the country.

In order to qualify for the relief fund, a farmer needs to be a South Africa citizen who has been actively farming for a minimum period of 12 months, he explained.

According to Kwapa, a farmer must be registered on the farmers register, commodity or provincial database and small holder farmers with annual turnover of between R50 000 and R1 million.

Agriculture and Rural Development MEC, Nandi Ndalane has urged qualifying farmers to hurry and submit their applications before the deadline. “Wednesday is the last day of applications. Time is quickly running out. Therefore, I am urging qualifying farmers to apply as the relief will go a long way in sustaining food production and importantly food security for the people of Limpopo,” she said.

She added that the relief fund will also make sure that farming as an economic sector survives this difficult period of Covid-19 restrictions.

It was learnt that all departmental service centres are open to help farmers submit their applications. The service centres operate on normal working hours for the purpose of helping the farmers with their applications, Kwapa concluded.

Story: Endy Senyatsi