With SA agriculture employing nearly 1 million people and generating record exports, President Cyril Ramaphosa stresses the need to cultivate a new generation of black commercial farmers in his weekly newsletter.
Last week I visited Redlands Farm, a commercial dairy farm in Stutterheim in the Eastern Cape owned and run by young black farmers. The farm has been able to expand its operations with the support of the Land Bank.
Redlands Farm is a beneficiary of the Land Bank’s Blended Finance Scheme, which combines government grant funding with loan finance. In many parts of the country, blended finance schemes are enabling farmers to build commercially successful businesses.
Far too often, emerging farmers are kept trapped at subsistence level because they cannot get the financing they need for farming inputs, infrastructure and additional land.
Redlands’ success shows that with effective partnerships, a transformed agricultural and agribusiness sector can boost the rural economy and create jobs.
A 2025 study by the University of Pretoria found a strong correlation between investment in agriculture and poverty reduction. The farming sector in South Africa employs around 944 000 people. An additional 200 000 workers are employed across the broader value chain.
South Africa’s innovative and resilient agricultural sector has more than doubled since the dawn of democracy in 1994. South Africa is the world’s 32nd largest agricultural exporter, with record exports of R270 billion in 2025.
We export a diverse basket of products including table grapes, maize, beef, wine, citrus, sugar and wool, among others. The African continent accounts for nearly half of our farm product exports. The rest is exported to the European Union and various countries in Asia, the Middle East and the Americas.
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Innovation in seed breeding, animal genetics and farm inputs has improved productivity and efficiency across our farmlands. Although our farming sector has flourished, many communities have remained on the periphery.
We still have what has been called “two agricultures”. Predominantly white-owned commercial farms account for the bulk of the country’s commercial farming output, while black farmers only account for around 10%.
We must therefore focus on the transformation of our agricultural sector. This is both necessary for the broader transformation of our economy and critical to food security.
Being reliant on the productive capacity of a relatively small segment of the population to meet our country’s food needs is unsustainable. Our population is growing and with it the demand for food.
We need to cultivate a new generation of farmers not only to address the inequalities of the past but to meet the needs of the future. The productive agricultural base has to be expanded.
We have to build a pipeline of skilled and productive commercial farmers who can sustain the sector. We must equip aspiring farmers with the skills, mentorship, training, technologies and other resources to farm successfully on a commercial scale.
The first step in building a new generation of South African farmers is providing them with titled access to land.
Through the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy, we are releasing approximately 2.5 million hectares of state-owned land in various parts of the country to black farmers and providing them with title deeds.
But land is only one ingredient. Knowledge of crops, weather, animal disease and the like is gained from practical experience and learning from established farmers. We are greatly encouraged by the programmes being run by commodity associations like the Citrus Growers’ Association, Grain South Africa, National Wool Growers’ Association, Potatoes South Africa, Red Meat Industry Services, Milk Producers’ Organisation and Fruit South Africa, which do admirable work in building an inclusive farming economy.
Another important ingredient for a successful farming enterprise is affordable, patient capital for new-era commercial farmers. The Land Bank, together with the Department of Agriculture, started the blended finance instrument to address this funding aspect.
Over the years, commercial banks have also joined the programme. We want to encourage other agribusinesses and commercial banks to join the blended finance programme and to develop more funding instruments to support agriculture.
As government, we are on a concerted drive to expand and diversify export markets for our agricultural products. We are engaging with agribusinesses and farmers around issues such as new breeding techniques and advances in agricultural biotechnology.
Agriculture is a sector that holds immense potential for growth and jobs. Through strong partnerships between government, farmers, business, lenders, traditional leaders and communities, we can build on the strong progress it has made over recent years.
We can bring more land under cultivation, create a new generation of black commercial farmers and ensure that we grow enough not only to feed all our people, but to sell to markets across the world.
- This article was first published by the South African Presidency. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Food For Mzansi.
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