Some 360 new jobs will be created in the Eastern Cape's Kat River Valley by an Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) pledge to help revive the citrus farming community, notes The Citizen.

IDC CE Geoffrey Qhena said the developmental model used for the community could potentially reconfigure rural farming in SA. The finances the IDC provided would fund the new farmers' land acquisitions from the Department of Land Affairs. It would also be used to replant and rehabilitate some 300ha of citrus orchards and provide working capital. Qhena said the Kat River project was within the IDC's development mandate to facilitate the redistribution of land to black farmers for the enhancement of commercial farming.
[url=http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=50021,1,22 style=original]Full report in The Citizen[/url[