The association's secretary general, Nakana Masoka, says the process is now going well and AFASA is assisting its members who qualify for assistance from the disaster fund. The criteria includes the targeted smallholder and communal producers with a turnover between R20 000 and R1 million per annum.  OFM News' Christal-lize Muller spoke to Masoka...

See PODCAST below

He says AFASA is making sure that its members receive the needed assistance to ensure they complete the application forms that need to be submitted to the district departments. 

There has, however, been challenges in the beginning on ground level with the application process. 

AFASA members struggled to access these forms with printing shops in rural areas closed during the national lockdown period. Masoka says it was, however, arranged with municipalities and established disaster management centers to assist the AFASA members to access the forms.

Another challenge at the start of the process included farmers who were questioned by police at road blocks, but once an explanation was provided and the application forms were showed to officers, farmers were allowed to proceed.

He says AFASA also informed its members to hand in the forms in bulk to prevent an overflow of applicants rushing to department offices. Local leadership have been appointed to collect the form and hand it in at the required offices. 

According to Masoka, the so-called "missing middle farmers" with an annual turnover of more than R1 million, also face the challenge of not qualifying for the grant. These farmers are not at the level of going through the "tedious cumbersome process of the Land Bank. Once a farmer has a turnover of more than R1 million it is required to turn to this bank for help while AFASA members proceeding to be commercial farmers, are not having the needed systems to do this. He is of the opinion that the Land Bank does not have the system to deal with the applications with the urgency that is required.

OFM News