Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti has launched an Animal and Veld Management Programme (AVMP) in Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal, to provide relief for farmers in rural areas, the department said on Sunday.
Nkwinti had identified soil rehabilitation, spatial decongestion, and re-greening of the environment as key delivery objectives of the AVMP.
The programme was an integrated implementation plan to provide relief to farmers in rural areas, who were operating under "challenging circumstances" made worse by spatial congestion, and environmental degradation through overgrazing.
It formed part of the government's attempt to help reverse the 1913 Natives' Land Act, the department said in a statement.
As part of the programme, it would identify farmers in communal areas who had shown potential for successful farming and move them to state-owned farms so they could "expand their farming operations".
The AVMP was targeted at the country's 24 poorest district municipalities and would be rolled out to other provinces.
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