He also provides more information about the latest developments in the agricultural sector. 

Here is Sihlobo....

See PODCAST at the end of the page.

He says in the past it was argued that the growth of South Africa’s agricultural fortunes and job creation will, in part, depend on the expansion of agricultural activities in the underutilised former homelands regions and farms that government acquired through the land reform process. That is why the past week’s announcement by the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development,Thoko Didiza, that government would be availing 700 000 hectares of agricultural land, is broadly positive.

This action is a right step towards improving the growth of the agricultural sector, but the financing of the new farms could prove to be a challenge.

He says the provinces with a specified large supply of land equating to 529 014 hectares are North West (300 000 hectares), Limpopo (121 567 hectares), Eastern Cape (43 000 hectares), Mpumalanga (40 206 hectares), Northern Cape (12 224 hectares), Free State (8 333 hectares) and KwaZulu-Natal (3 684 hectares).

Beneficiary selection 

According to Sihlobo, government promises efficiency in availing the land to potential beneficiaries with the selection process, which will be through three broad structures on district, provincial and national level could take approximately two months. So far, it is unclear what criteria the selection committees will follow as no final version of the Beneficiary Selection and Land Allocation Policy has been published since the draft was gazetted early this year.

"We hope the foundations of that policy have been retained as robust and transparent criteria is critical to bring confidence that there aren’t any corrupt activities in the process." He says this is an important area which was also emphasized in the Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture. 

Farm productivity

He says availing government land is one step of contributing to the growth of agricultural fortunes and job creation. Other important aspects will be the readiness of the beneficiaries to farm, which is their know-how of farming, as well as resources such as finance and infrastructure of the farms.  

According to Sihlobo government's plan which includes beneficiaries that will be subjected to a compulsory training programme before gaining full access to the farm, is an important step as there might be young people aspiring to join the sector but have minimal experience. There should be training programmes which broadly relates to financial and business management and yet also cater to specialised training for commodities that a beneficiary wishes to focus on.

Together with that the state of the infrastructure on these farms is unclear at this point. Each farm might be in a different condition from the next as some might have been bought by the state a couple of years ago and the infrastructure might not all be in a suitable condition. A clear assessment of this, and an upgrade where necessary, will be key before the new beneficiaries take over the farms, says Sihlobo.

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