By STAFF REPORTER
North West MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Desbo Mohono said legalisation and commercialisation of cannabis will create job opportunities, alleviate poverty and increase economic growth.
Mohono who was addressing a webinar targeting critical stakeholders on Tuesday said there is also a need for a multifaceted approach towards further inputs into the cannabis masterplan.
“The conversation follows the cabinet decision taken in July 2019 that the country needs a national strategy to commercialise cannabis in order to increase economic growth, create jobs and alleviate poverty.
“The development of cannabis masterplan is underpinned by the re-imagined industrial strategy, which is operationalised through the application of a master-planning process that seeks to create a shared vision and secure reciprocal action-oriented commitments between industry, government, and labour for long-term sustainability and growth of the national priority sectors,” she said.
Mohono further encouraged all role players and action holders to work together in the form of integration and coordination in order to advance the plan. She added that she had received a lot of correspondence from groups, which seemed determined to stir conversations around cannabis legalization.
“I thank those groups for being consistent and I want to believe that they are really passionate about this plant. I know many of you have contributed to the draft master plan, but there is a need for us to once more make a collective contribution to the plan that we have at this stage,” said Mohono.
It has been indicated that South Africa could be making around R28 billion in informal trading of cannabis. Mohono said the acceleration of efforts towards inputs into the master plan could see the income benefitting communities.
“There needs to be a way to have a direct benefit for our people. This determination includes having more permit holders in the province. Currently, there are only two cannabis permit holders in the province.
“One of them is young Akofa Naphtaly, a female smallholder farmer based in Mahikeng. Naphtaly holds a permit for research and development and this means that she is allowed to plant hemp in open fields and tunnels and can farm across the value chain,” she said.
Meanwhile, the deputy chairperson of the African Farmers Association of South Africa (FASA) in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda district, Buti Malinga also expressed his appreciation that the government has called stakeholders around the table for the first time in the province to map a way forward for what he refers to as “an economic game-changer” for farmers.
Malinga said: “It is our organization’s responsibility to champion opportunities awareness. Cannabis is one of the products that have sparked interest in many farmers and we are committed to working with the government in ensuring that members indeed benefit from the process.”
The Agricultural Research Council(ARC) which reflected on the research and technology to support primary production, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DARRLD) on the regulatory framework for Hemp licensing, the Council for Scientific Research and Industrial Research (CSIR) on research and technology to support processing manufacturing and product development for cannabis and the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority on a regulatory framework on medical cannabis licensing was also part of the proceeding.
The Guardian 