The Farmer Support and Development (FSD) Programme encompasses the broad development agenda of the Department of Agriculture, meaning that the design and implementation are predominantly for supporting black farmers in the Western Cape Province but does not exclude the commercial sector.

This support to beneficiaries ranges from land reform to institutional capacity building. Given that the predominant need for the development of an equitable and diverse agricultural sector has been identified, 80% of the budget will be utilised to build the capacity of the historically disadvantaged communities and individuals. The commercial sector employs more than 200 000 people and therefore 20% of budget will be allocated to support this sector.

The FSD programme provides extension, support and facilitation of training to farmers, with special emphasis on developing of emerging farmers, implementation of land reform programmes and agricultural rural development projects.

Three sub-programmes are responsible to achieve the above goals:

• Farmer Settlement
• Farmer Support services
• Food Security
• Farmworker development
• Casidra