Jubie Matlou
The Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs intends to create a black commercial farming class as part of its overall strategy of land reform and redistribution.
This strategy is contained in a policy proposal from the ministry that calls for the establishment of a commercial farmer programme seeking to empower the country’s estimated 45 000 black farmers, enabling them to enter the mainstream of agricultural business.
Many of the potential beneficiaries are farm workers and labour tenants, as well as scores of emerging black commercial farmers.
The programme would involve three basic aspects:
l The disposal of state land to nearby communities, either through outright purchase or a lease with an option to buy;
l Client-driven projects in which communities seek government assistance to formulate a project proposal that covers business plans and terms of negotiating a bank loan;
l Public-private partnership projects in which the government enters into an agreement with agri-business to establish a number of black commercial farmers, where the government will provide the necessary budget; or an alternative arrangement in which a commercial farmer acts as a mentor to assist his/her farm workers to acquire a nearby piece of land and manage it as a farm.
Criteria for consideration in the programme include South African nationality, the net financial worth of the individual, and the financial viability of a project. Participants seeking medium grants of up to R70 000 should have at least five years’ farming experience or an appropriate diploma, or demonstrate entrepreneurial acumen and skills.
However, government grants will provide only a portion of the total costs required for a project, and will need to be matched by the individual farmer’s financial contribution.
Statistics South Africa’s (SSA) figures indicate that there are 1,7-million households in former homeland areas that are engaged in some form of agriculture. Of these, about 6% sell some of the produce, and 2% (or 33 000) produce mainly for profit. In addition, there are about 25 000 labour-tenant households, mainly in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.
SSA data also reveals that 1% of households in former homeland areas access about 24% of the arable land, and 7% of the households maintain 45% of all the livestock.
Many of the emerging commercial and small farmers are organised under the National African Farmer’s Union. It was established in 1991 to cater for the interests of black farmers and to lobby the government and financial institutions with the aim of addressing the inequalities that marked the agricultural sector.
Meanwhile, the ministry has established the land reform credit facility to assist emerging farmers with cash-flow problems.