The Limpopo government has called in agricultural experts to help resurrect a string of ailing black-owned farms regained through the state’s land redistribution programme.
The provincial Department of Agriculture said it has set aside R5-million to aid struggling rural poor farmers who acquired land through the government’s Settlement Land Acquisition Grant programme.
More than 76 farms in the province, totalling 45 000ha, have been transferred into black hands since 1997 through the programme. The farms cost the state about R110-million and have benefited 6 000 households.
Though many were national flagship redistribution projects, the new farmers’ inexperience and the lack of support for emerging farmers led to the collapse of many of the 76 farms.
Aaron Motsoaledi, Limpopo’s MEC for Agriculture, told the Mail & Guardian this week that his department’s initiative to employ consultants to revive the redistribution projects would bear fruits. He said a tender calling for experts had closed and the shortlisted candidates would make presentations to his department in the next few weeks.
He said most of the provincial programme’s communal property associations were not operating and had been crippled by internal conflict.
Motsoaledi said the 76 farms had been grouped into seven farming clusters, which would allow the experts to identify weak spots.
He said the consultants would also advise his department whether commercial farmers needed to be roped in to help run some of the farms.
But land rights activists the M&G contacted this week were sceptical. The Nkuzi Development Association said it welcomed the department’s effort to bring in consultants, but it warned against the imposition of inappropriate projects on communities.
Mark Wegeris, Nkuzi’s spokes- person, said redistribution projects had hit problems in the past because models were developed with little community involvement.
”Some of the projects are often what the communities do not want. We support the idea to bring in expertise, but we hope that it takes into account the interests and abilities of the communities,” he said.
Until 1999 the government provided R16 000 grants to buy land for people who earned less than R1 500 a month. The communities were organised communal property associations.
In 1999 Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza placed a moratorium on Settlement Land Acquisition Grant programme and a new programme, Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development, was launched last year.
The programme aims to promote a class of full-time black commercial farmers. The income ceiling of R1 500 a month has been replaced with a requirement that grant applicants contribute a minimum of R5 000 to qualify for the minimum grant of R20 000.
The national government expects to set up 70 000 black commercial farmers under the programme by 2017.
Motsoaledi said his department was implementing the programme in Limpopo. The programme was formally launched in the province last week and five black farmers have already been awarded farms.
The MEC was confident that the new programme would succeed because it provided proper support for farmers. But Wegeris disagrees.
”We believe that [the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development programme] is not a solution. This policy fails to address some of the serious failings of the [Settlement Land Acquisition Grant programme], namely the reliance on the willing buyer and willing seller approach, which gives current owners effective control over the pace and nature of land redistribution. Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development offers less support to enable beneficiaries to access the programme.”