The South African agriculture and land policy discourse risks entering a period of stagnation like much of the country’s developmental agenda.
More than three years ago we knew that government had over the years acquired about 2.5-million hectares of land through its Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy.
Much of this land was previously used for various farming activities, but some is now underutilised, and some is under short-term leases to farmers who struggle to access the capital required to unlock the land’s potential.
Whenever we consider the long-term growth prospects for agriculture we assume this land will be fully used productively to boost agricultural output and add jobs.
On various occasions over the past three years President Cyril Ramaphosa and then agriculture, land reform & rural development minister Thoko Didiza pushed for the establishment of a Land Reform & Agricultural Development Agency, which would drive the release of land to appropriately selected beneficiaries with title deeds, address finance challenges, and lean on organised agriculture and private sector skills.
The process has taken inordinately long. Still, there has been some progress in setting up the agency, with conceptual work completed, driven primarily by the leadership of the department of agriculture, land reform & rural development. The release of this land with title deeds to appropriately selected beneficiaries has the support of the presidency.
In his opening of parliament address in July Ramaphosa stressed the importance of this process when he stated: “We will increase funding to land reform, prioritise the transfer of state land and improve postsettlement support by strengthening the institutional capacity of responsible structures.”
The department of land reform & rural development should therefore accelerate the process of establishing the Land Reform & Rural Development Agency and ensure that it begins its work this year.
There is always a temptation to indulge in elaborate consultation and dialogue about land matters. In fact, over the past three decades SA has spent more time talking than on policy implementation. This year land reform & rural development minister Mzwanele Nyhontso and his director-general should strive to avoid the allure of these elaborate, unproductive meetings and consultations, and rather move ahead with the programmes established by the previous administration, tweaking and improving as they implement.
Failure to begin will result in another year of discussions while farmers on the ground, and the sector as a whole, continue to suffer.
If the government cannot move ahead and release more land and support for farmers there is a real risk to the long-term growth prospects of SA’s agriculture and rural economy. The success of other government programmes such as the Agriculture & Agro-processing Master Plan hinges on the progress of land release. When the work begins the approach should not follow the practice of the past few years, in which a land parcel is allocated to numerous beneficiaries. The policy focus should be a deliberate attempt to support and nurture a new cohort of individual commercial farmers, not groups.
The “Better Few, But Better” concept should be the running theme as we build the agricultural sector and rural economy. This entails selecting a few and better cohort of commercial farmers to support.
Focusing on creating and nurturing a new cohort of farmers does not mean the government can ignore smallholder farmers. They should continue receiving the necessary support as they play a vital role in household food security.
Deliberate support for commercial farming will also ensure there are farmers in each region who could be aggregators for the surrounding smallholder farmers who wish to access noncommercial value chains.
This year must be a period of implementation and progress in land reform and agriculture. It will ensure that the goodwill that exists within organised agriculture to collaborate does not wane while also boosting the farming economy.
–Written for and first appeared in the Business Day.
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