Land redistribution needed to be accelerated, government and commercial agriculture agreed at a meeting in Pretoria on Saturday. The issues of land prices and farmer support were central in this process, they said in a statement after an indaba of the presidential commercial agriculture working group.
”The meeting agreed on the need for clear and distinct strategies for land acquisition with respect to facilitating the implementation of the restitution process, separately but in alignment with the LRAD (Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development) programme.”
Some 450 000 ha of land had been distributed so far through the LRAD programme.
It was decided to establish a task team comprising representatives of government, the National African Farmers’ Union (Nafu) and Agri SA to look into ways of expediting the process, the statement said.
The delegations of Nafu and Agri SA at the meeting were led by their respective presidents, Peter Rammutla and Japie Grobler.
From government’s side, those present included President Thabo Mbeki, Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza, Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin and Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana.
Didiza told reporters afterwards that there was a need to broaden participation in the agricultural sector. ”We want a united and prosperous sector.”
One of the objectives was to determine how to ensure that agriculture became inclusive and would be the backbone of South Africa’s economy. Didiza emphasised the importance of following a commodity-specific approach with land redistribution.
With cotton, for instance, one had to look at how production could be increased, involving emerging farmers, and linking this to the broader textile industry in the country.
It was necessary to deliver more land to black farmers and to ensure that they had the technology they needed, Didiza said.
The agriculture department would work with that of trade and industry to integrate agriculture commodity development strategies with the integrated manufacturing strategy, the statement said.
The meeting agreed to assemble a task team comprising those two departments and that of land affairs, as well as Nafu and Agri SA and other relevant bodies, to produce a draft report on an integrated agricultural strategy by mid-December. The strategy should be finalised by February next year.
In his briefing to the meeting, Erwin said the World Trade Organisation negotiations on agriculture now seemed more positive that they did immediately after the last round in Cancun, Mexico.
Didiza said the meeting and subsequent deliberations had laid a basis from which it was possible to move forward.
Cancun — where the contentious issue of large agricultural subsidies in developed countries, to the detriment of developing nations, featured prominently — should not be seen as a collapse, perhaps as a setback, she added. ‒ Sapa