/ 12 May 2008

Food vs land reform

Experts say the often chaotic land reform programme has compromised food production: white farmers facing land claims are reluctant to plant crops, while emerging black farmers have insufficient training and support to produce the quantities of food needed by the domestic market.

“Racially tinged assumptions behind policymaking, low budgets and low capacity all start looking alarmingly like the beginning of a Zimbabwe-style approach to land issues,” says a report released by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) this week. It says land reform policies have contributed to a “nobody wins and everybody loses” situation. The report says black commercial farmers who are starting to prosper are also subject to land claims, effectively disempowering black people who the process of land reform is meant to empower.

Delays in the transfers of land claims and inadequate support for emerging farmers has sliced food production and propelled soaring food prices in South Africa.

At least 50% of land reform projects are considered “abject failures”, according to the report.

“The CDE report’s assessment of the high failure rate in land reform projects to date and their negative impacts on agricultural production are largely correct,” says Ben Cousins, director of the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (Plaas) at the University of the Western Cape. “If a similar situation prevails in the future, when much higher proportions of land have been transferred to land reform beneficiaries, then there could well be some negative results for overall agricultural output.”

“Commercial farmers are hesitant to expand because they do not know what will happen with their farms in future,” says Ferdi Meyer, senior lecturer in the department of agricultural economics at the University of Pretoria. “Land beneficiaries … receive the land, but little or no support to sustain and expand the level of production.”

“The CDE report suggests that government land reform policies give priority to small-scale and subsistence producers. This is completely inaccurate and takes government rhetoric at face value,” says Cousins. “In practice land reform beneficiaries often have inappropriate large-scale models of agriculture foisted on to them by government officials and consultants. With the absence of post-settlement support, this is a key reason for the high failure rate in land reform.”

In Limpopo’s Levubu valley, known as the fruit basket of the agricultural sector, where all the farms are facing land claims, production has dramatically decreased in the past three years. “Approximately 300 tons of fresh produce was transported out of Levubu to the market every week three years ago.

Now 60 tons maximum is transported out of Levubu each week,” says Lionel Hartman, general manager of Mopani Fruit packers. Hartman says the production of export fruit — mostly avocados — in the area decreased from 63,5% three years ago to 38%, a loss of R2-million a year in income. He says factories also rejected about 700tons of macadamia nuts because of quality problems, at a loss of R6,3-million. Apart from lost profit, more than 1 000 farm workers have lost their jobs, as have truck drivers and agricultural specialists. “All of this means that more than R40-million is lost by Levubu each year.”

“I think land restitution is important, but food security should not be jeopardised because of it. A viable production plan should be put in place. On the other side of the ideology is the economic reality,” says Derek Donkin, chief executive of the Subtropical Growers’ Association.

In Levubu, says Hartman, 60 farms that were sold to the government are now run by two large “management partners”, who are contracted by government to train farmers and manage farms for land claimants for up to 10 years. He says the management companies rely on government for funding for all new farming equipment. “One of these strategic partners has been placed in control of almost all land restitution projects in Limpopo. The risk is that in the event that something goes wrong, the whole agricultural sector in the province will be affected,” says Hartman.

And it’s not just white farmers who feel this way. “As a black commercial farmer, I believe we need more support from the government if [we] are to compete successfully with farmers from developed countries,” says Phindi Kema, a commercial citrus farmer in Addo, Eastern Cape, and director of the Citrus Growers’ Association.

“Government often delays providing this capital for up to three years, which often causes production to come to a complete standstill,” says Kema.

She says the agricultural sector does not attract black skills. “The developed countries such as the United States and European countries subsidise and incentivise their farmers with tax breaks and lower interest rates to increase production and stabilise food prices so as to guarantee the country food security.”

“We urgently need to look into long-term solutions such as increased food production of basic foodstuffs,” says Ronald Ramabulana, chief executive of the National Agricultural Marketing Council. “To address the long-term problems in food security, more money needs to be invested in research in the agricultural sector.”

“A new approach is needed,” says Cousins, “premised on adequate understanding of the real needs and aspirations of small-scale producers and those benefiting from land redistribution and restitution. This is the urgent task facing land reform policy-making in South Africa.”