For South African agriculture to transform and be sustainable, uncomfortable conversations need to be brought to the table and robustly discussed without pointing fingers. Coming with solutions should be the goal.
This was the central message at the Partners in Agri Land Solutions (Pals) annual general meeting held in Ceres in the Western Cape this past week. Industry role players gathered to take stock of the challenges that hamper transformation and growth in agriculture.
Executive director at Hortgro Anton Rabe said the topic of transformation was sensitive and it needed to become less of a sensitive issue to speak about.
‘We need to face the facts’
“All of us need to realise that it is a reality, and we need to embrace it, we must take each other on board. It is our hearts, minds, and our lives that we need to transform,” he said.
Rabe said Hortgro has been involved in transformation projects for many years, with others proceeding well while others fail. However, he added, mistakes were made and lessons learned along the way.
“Ownership by itself is not transformation, it needs to be supported by skills development, financial acumen, access to markets, and mentorship. All those factors that contribute to the success of farming, that is transformation. Being involved in the whole value chain not just talking about ownership at a primary level.
“So as the industry and farmers we need to work together towards that,” he said.
Rabe cautioned against the narrative that only a white commercial farmer needs to contribute towards the transformation of an up-and-coming farmer, everyone needs to bring their share to the table.
“Having done this for some time, as the industry we know what works and we know what does not work, we have seen few individuals who have become opportunistic and have failed,” he said.
Group operations manager at Hortgro Mariette Kotze said transformation is never an overnight business, it needs strong partnerships that have people who are willing to work and not lose sight of the end goal.
“Transformation is a process, while we working as partners, we need to prepare ourselves best but also expect the worst in our different journeys that we embark on,” she said.
Work with what you have
Agbiz chief economist Wandile Sihlobo said the agricultural sector needs to close the ranks and work together with government to build an inclusive industry.
Sihlobo explained, “When you look across the world, there is a sense of anxiety many economies are not performing reasonably well. Some are talking about inflation pointing that the world today is far more challenged than we thought it would be at the beginning of this year.
“The South African economy to an extent mirrors those difficulties, although we have our own challenges such as logistics, load shedding, corruption, and inefficiencies that impact on our growth.”
Sihlobo said there would not be any decent growth in the economy in South Africa for the next three years.
He said even though the sector was facing enormous challenges and being called out for its lack of transformation, it has grown and continues to create jobs across the country.
“The are number of plans that we have done since 1994 up to today, with what we have now being Agriculture and Agro-processing Master Plan, the reality is that in South Africa we write effective plans but when we face challenges with implementation we do not go back and do monitoring and evaluation.
“We go forward and structure another plan and that leads to this fatigue that we face as a sector, which is why we need to rally behind the master plan. It is the best document we have at the moment and disregarding it will add to the list of plans that have been crafted already,” he said.
Sihlobo urged agricultural leaders who might not agree with some parts of the master plan to see how it can be improved for the betterment of the sector.
Lennox Plaatjies, chief executive of Pals, said without partnerships of not only farmers but also financial institutions coming into the game to assist farmers, transformation was going to remain a pipe dream, especially in rural areas.
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