Happy New Year Mzansi farmers. A new leaf of hope, aspirations, faith and dedication has come forth. Following a hard year that was 2023, now is the time to work extremely hard to better profits and operations for the year ahead.
Food For Mzansi caught up with farmers about their plans for the year 2024, what they are hoping for, what change they’d like to see and how different they would be tackling the year ahead.
Better yields are needed
Chief executive officer of African Poultry Producers (APP), Kobedi Pilane said farmers had gone through a lot in the past year because of numerous unending challenges which impacted their growth and profits.
“The outbreak of bird flu ravaged the industry from small producers to commercial producers and brought the industry to its lowest level in decades with a 30% drop in production nationwide.
“As APP, our hope for 2024 is that our government will focus on the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act and seriously look at reviewing this legislation. It can be used as a tool to assist different commodities while fostering the transformation of each agricultural industry. The Black Agricultural Commodities Federation (BACF) has provided a blueprint of how this should be implemented for each commodity market,” he said.
Pilane said they were hoping that with the new year, producers in the poultry industry would find reprieve with substantial support from the government to ensure that commodity organisations recognised by the government agencies were engaged in finding solutions for challenges experienced by the industry.
“We hope that this year, we have better results in levels of production ensuring that consumers can enjoy quality poultry products at an affordable price,” he said.
Prioritise land reform and transformation
Limpopo fruit farmer Dibesho Serage has his sights set on the future. He hopes that with the new government that is set to come into power after the provincial and national elections, transformation and land reform top the list for the agricultural sector.
“I wish to see a more aggressive cooperation between the commodity bodies and their respective transformation bodies. I wish there could always be a common understanding of transformation priorities
Serage said he was hoping that the transformation agenda and land redistribution would not be used for politics but rather for a genuine plea from the farmers.
“I also wish that financial institutions could get into the habit of supporting small-scale farmers. We know, by now, that those types of farmers do not have collateral and they do not have security. But once they can demonstrate, by way of track records how they use the money, why should it be difficult for these institutions to support them?” he asked.
Farmers’ wishes
A livestock farmer in Kuruman, Northern Cape Maungo Mokgoje said his wish for 2024 for the agriculture industry, is to have more rain and to grow and improve grass quality for his herds.
“Now I plan to improve the quality and numbers of my livestock and to acquire additional capital to assist with my farming operations. Also, veld management will be looked at because our management has been poor.
“One of the major heartbreaks which affected farmers across the country was devastating veld fires. We experienced our own three days before Christmas which destroyed half of our veld camps,” he said.
Vegetable farmer in Khayelitsha Sinethemba Matika said she hoped and wished for more market access and security around her farm in the township.
“For the year 2024, I have the production sorted out. For now, I think my foundation is strong enough to be able to witness growth for my business in the year ahead,” she said.
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