• Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • News
  • Lifestyle
Farming practices: Studies show that there are 2,500 billion tons of carbon in soil, compared with 800 billion tons in the atmosphere and 560 billion tons in plant and animal life. Healthier soil can store even more. Healthy plants with good roots capture further carbon from the atmosphere.

‘Build on goodwill between traditional authorities and agriculture’

25th December 2020
Leanne Gammage and Jackson Andrew, co-founders of Masterstock Cape Wild Food. Masterstock Cape Wild Food is a speciality salt brand focused on regenerative agriculture. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Agripreneur 101: Regeneration at the heart of this salt company

15th August 2022

R350 grant puts sisters on agri path to success

15th August 2022
ADVERTISEMENT
The uMngeni Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal is supporting local farmers through a new agricultural unit that has been established in the municipality. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Farmer support: KZN municipality leads the way

15th August 2022
Farmers in the south-western parts of the country can expect a slightly drier than usual spring. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

ICYMI: Below-normal winter rainfall to continue

15th August 2022
This week's Agri calendar features a wine and food event, an online discussion on biofilms the dairy industry and another on cutting fertiliser costs. There's also a livestock auction to look out for and an online event about soil. Include your event to the calendar by emailing info@foodformzansi.com. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

This week’s agriculture events: 15 to 18 August 2022

15th August 2022
Andile Matukane, founder of Farmers Choice and Devroll Legodi, founder of Devroll Herbs, joined a recent session of Food For Mzansi’s Gather To Grow on twitter o discuss the cultivation of spring onions in Mzansi. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Farmer 101: Top tips to grow spring onions

14th August 2022
This drone is collecting data which farmers can then access on the yield management platform. Photo: Supplied/Aerobotics

How the Internet of Things is transforming agri

13th August 2022
His life took a turn for the worst when he ended up in jail for dealing in drugs, but Thembinkosi Matika turned his life around and now helps others through his Legacy Farming Project. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Drug dealer turned farmer ploughs back

12th August 2022
Beat the winter blues with yummy butter chicken

Beat the winter blues with yummy butter chicken

12th August 2022
Households in South Africa could be in for some respite in the coming months on food prices. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Food may soon be cheaper. What’s the catch?

12th August 2022
Archive photo. Western Cape agri MEC Ivan Meyer highlighted small towns' dependence on agriculture during a recent provincial summit with municipal leaders. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

ICYMI: MEC lines up municipal support for farmers

12th August 2022
Christo Van der Rheede is the executive director of Agri SA. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Former music teacher leads agri’s greatest symphony

12th August 2022
  • Home
  • News
  • Changemakers
  • Lifestyle
  • Farmer’s Inside Track
  • Food for Thought
11 GLOBAL MEDIA AWARDS
Monday, August 15, 2022
Food For Mzansi
  • Home
  • News
  • Changemakers
    • All
    • AgriCareers
    • Entrepreneurs
    • Farmers
    • Groundbreakers
    • Innovators
    • Inspiration
    • It Takes a Village
    • Mentors
    • Movers and Shakers
    • Partnerships
    Leanne Gammage and Jackson Andrew, co-founders of Masterstock Cape Wild Food. Masterstock Cape Wild Food is a speciality salt brand focused on regenerative agriculture. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

    Agripreneur 101: Regeneration at the heart of this salt company

    R350 grant puts sisters on agri path to success

    The uMngeni Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal is supporting local farmers through a new agricultural unit that has been established in the municipality. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

    Farmer support: KZN municipality leads the way

    This drone is collecting data which farmers can then access on the yield management platform. Photo: Supplied/Aerobotics

    How the Internet of Things is transforming agri

    His life took a turn for the worst when he ended up in jail for dealing in drugs, but Thembinkosi Matika turned his life around and now helps others through his Legacy Farming Project. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

    Drug dealer turned farmer ploughs back

    Christo Van der Rheede is the executive director of Agri SA. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

    Former music teacher leads agri’s greatest symphony

    Agripreneur 101: Creating a beauty brand

    Agripreneur 101: Creating a beauty brand

    Claire and Martin Joubert have sacrificed and struggled to become top breeders of Ankole cattle in South Africa. But giving up was never an option, because they wanted to offer only the very best Ankole genetics in the country. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

    Farming couple lives and breathes Ankole cattle

    Tackling climate change, one tree at a time

  • Lifestyle
  • Farmer’s Inside Track
  • Food for Thought
No Result
View All Result
Food For Mzansi

‘Build on goodwill between traditional authorities and agriculture’

by Staff Reporter
25th December 2020
in Food for Thought
Reading Time: 5 mins read
A A
Farming practices: Studies show that there are 2,500 billion tons of carbon in soil, compared with 800 billion tons in the atmosphere and 560 billion tons in plant and animal life. Healthier soil can store even more. Healthy plants with good roots capture further carbon from the atmosphere.

Ensuring that farmers maximise the true potential of the land includes the proper maintenance of their most precious asset: their soil. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

As the year draws to a close, it is worthwhile to reflect on one of the biggest highlights of 2020 in land reform. Geoff de Beer and Emile de Kock, transaction advisors with the Vumelana Advisory Fund, unpack some of the current models, challenges, gaps, and a possible way forward as we forge ahead. Vumelana is a non-profit organisation that helps beneficiaries of the land reform programme to make their land productive.

Government’s new plan to reallocate 700 000 hectares of underutilised state-owned land has been hailed as a quantum leap in the land reform programme. This move has also renewed interest in post-settlement solutions that can enable the success of land reform, driving effective utilisation to ensure productive use of land.

While this is a big milestone in the land reform programme, the initiative has been criticised for various reasons including threatening food security and spooking investors. Government has been criticised for its tardiness in speeding up the land redistribution programme and for not committing enough resources relative to the political rhetoric of redressing the wrongs of the past.

Current landscape 

Debunking the general perception of the failure of the land reform programme, De Kock stresses that the success of the programme should be measured by how quickly it is concluded, and not by the success or failure of the various enterprise undertakings including agriculture and tourism projects.

ADVERTISEMENT
The Vumelana Advisory Fund helps communities in the land reform programme to develop their land. It also funds advisory services to structure commercially viable partnerships between communities and investors that create jobs, income and skills. Photo: Supplied

“How quickly can the land reform programme be implemented and concluded, and not how the associated projects perform, should be the measure we use to gauge the success of the programme.

“How the enterprises are performing on transferred land is a totally different question – it becomes an agricultural and an economics question, not a land reform question. So, it would be irresponsible to combine these two and pretend that land reform is some kind of economic sub-sector,” says De Kock.

He concedes that on both fronts – the speed of land reform implementation and the extent to which it has positively impacted the livelihoods of beneficiaries – the track record is disappointing.

De Kock attributes the slow pace of land reform programme to three factors: inadequate budget, resistance from interest groups and an absence of bureaucracy that is fit for purpose to implement and drive the process.

In 2016 the Vumelana Advisory Fund has awarded the Bela-Bela Communal Property Association in Limpopo with its Vumelana Governance Awards. Photo: Supplied

“There has never in the history of the new dispensation been a year where there was enough budget allocated to meet the land reform targets.

“It is not feasible to build a 5 000 kilometre stretch of tarred road with a budget allocation for three kilometres. Secondly, there is definitely a degree of resistance from interest groups within the political economy that does make it a little difficult.

“Thirdly, there has not been a reasonable amount of diligence applied in the bureaucracy of the mainstream land reform programme.

“What I mean by that is that land reform is a bureaucratic process. So you have targets, and you have processes and procedures, and if you combine budget with processes and procedures in order to achieve targets, then you have a bureaucracy at work,” he says.

De Beer adds that, “Often, beneficiaries of the land reform programme lack the requisite finance, skills and expertise to sustain the land and keep it productive. In most cases, the enterprises operating on properties – at the time of settling land claims are in a state of financial decline or have largely collapsed.

ADVERTISEMENT

“This is no surprise, bearing in mind that even moderately sized enterprises are capital and skills intensive and operate in a highly competitive local, national and international environment.”

Current models in land reform 

De Beer explains that many communities have chosen to retain their ancestral land instead of taking a cash equivalent and have opted for a wide variety of arrangements to offset the lack of capital and expertise, with varying degrees of success.

Chief Barrington Mabuela (secretary of the Bela-Bela CPA), Andries Mabuela, Jarita Mabula (chairperson of the Bela-Bela CPA) and Peter Setou, the chief executive of the Vumelana Advisory Fund. Photo: Supplied
Chief Barrington Mabuela (secretary of the Bela-Bela CPA), Andries Mabuela, Jarita Mabula (chairperson of the Bela-Bela CPA) and Peter Setou, the chief executive of the Vumelana Advisory Fund. Photo: Supplied

Broadly speaking, these models have included (amongst others) collectives, service level agreements (or management contracts), various lease-based agreements, share-equity schemes, farm-worker-share-equity schemes and joint ventures,

De Beer notes that, While these models seem potentially commercially sound at face value, experience has shown that each one of these options has its own inherent pitfalls and solutions need to be designed and implemented on a case specific basis. The careful ‘up-front’ identification and allocation of these key aspects of risk/reward in all of these ‘partnerships’ is essential.”

He cautions that, “Failure to carefully and systematically design  these ‘partnerships’ to identify, engage  and agree on ways to mitigate or allocate such risks/responsibilities has led to the failure of many agricultural and tourism projects.”

Opportunity to implement the CPP model

De Beer says it is against this background that Vumelana developed the Community Private Partnership (CPP) model to provide much needed support to beneficiary communities to enable them to run commercially viable farms.

CPPs present one of the most viable options where beneficiary communities and the private sector enter into a win-win partnership for the management of the land. A critical aspect of the Vumelana support programme has been the use of experienced transaction advisors to assist the Claimant communities in the up-front design and legal contracting for the CPPs.

“There is goodwill between traditional authorities and the commercial agricultural sector in the former homelands, which presents a significant opportunity for meaningful CPP ventures.”

Vumelana has implemented the CPP model in a number of cases and it has proven to be a workable model. Case studies indicate that participation by the private sector via CPPs in the land reform programme has addressed the competency gaps for beneficiary communities by facilitating access to markets and finance, and has spurred investment in production and employment and led to skills transfer.

Support for CPI administration should be an integral part of supporting beneficiary communities. Communities are becoming owners of large capital investments, but they generally do not have the necessary governance and management structures and capabilities.

As a result, they require professional services. Institutionalising community support should become an integral part of the post-land claims process to manage community expectations and aspirations,” comments De Beer.

De Kock says the planned allocation of 700 000 hectares presents a great opportunity to implement the CPP model in some of the instances where communities apply for land. He says that experience has shown that the productive potential of the land, coupled with the cohesiveness of the community, are the two important factors that can attract potential investors.

“All that land tends to be already in use by smallholder livestock and fresh produce farmers, and therefore it is logical and beneficial that those people and families who had been arriving on the land for the past five decades or more should have the opportunity to formalise the tenure over that land through the new policy,” says De Kock.

“There is a great amount of goodwill between traditional authorities and the commercial agricultural sector in the former homelands, which presents a significant opportunity for meaningful CPP ventures to be developed on those former commercial estates in state land areas.

“It would be necessary to develop transparent protocols for such partnerships to be concluded in a manner that is compliant with state policy. There are also large pieces of land with limited productive potential in the former homeland areas, including grazing land and smallholder cultivation plots,” concludes De Kock.

Tags: 700 000 hectarescommunity private partnershipCPPEmile de KockGeoff de Beerland reformunderutilised state-owned landVumelana Advisory Fund
Previous Post

A farmer’s (weighty!) Christmas dilemma

Next Post

Meet the Gugs queen who started 8 veggie gardens

Staff Reporter

Staff Reporter

Researched and written by our team of writers and editors.

Related Posts

Land reform: Why post-settlement support is key

Land reform: Why post-settlement support is key

by Peter Setou
2nd August 2022
0

As Mzansi's agricultural sector continues to grow, it's imperative to give beneficiaries of the country's land reform programme support to...

Pictures of the dilapidated Diyatalawa Agri-Village were released this week by Dr Roy Jankielsohn, DA leader in the Free State. Photos: Supplied

In pictures: Can this failed farm village be resurrected?

by Duncan Masiwa
6th July 2022
0

Another failed farm is in the spotlight. Free State agri MEC Thembeni Nxangisa says his office will suggest that strategic...

The State Capture commission made a range of recommendations to prevent corrupt projects like the Estina Vrede Dairy Farm project in future. Image: Food For Mzansi

Vrede Dairy Farm: Heads must roll, say farmers

by Tiisetso Manoko
24th June 2022
0

It can't go on like this, with billions disappearing into corrupt and ineffective land reform projects. So say farmers and...

The Mamphodo Mushasha Begwa Community Property Association (CPA) located in Louis Trichadt and Elim in Limpopo has been crushed by alleged sabotage. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

‘Sabotage’ brings successful land reform farm to its knees

by Staff Reporter
18th May 2022
0

What seemed like textbook example of a successful land reform farm in Limpopo has been brought to its knees, allegedly...

Next Post
Nomonde Kweza is an award-winning farmer and the owner of, among others, the Ulimo Lwethu food garden in Gugulethu, Cape Town. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Meet the Gugs queen who started 8 veggie gardens

Farmers in the south-western parts of the country can expect a slightly drier than usual spring. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi
News

ICYMI: Below-normal winter rainfall to continue

by Staff Reporter
15th August 2022
0

In case you missed it: According to the SA Weather Service’s latest seasonal forecast, the transition into summer will not...

Read more
This week's Agri calendar features a wine and food event, an online discussion on biofilms the dairy industry and another on cutting fertiliser costs. There's also a livestock auction to look out for and an online event about soil. Include your event to the calendar by emailing info@foodformzansi.com. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

This week’s agriculture events: 15 to 18 August 2022

15th August 2022
Andile Matukane, founder of Farmers Choice and Devroll Legodi, founder of Devroll Herbs, joined a recent session of Food For Mzansi’s Gather To Grow on twitter o discuss the cultivation of spring onions in Mzansi. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Farmer 101: Top tips to grow spring onions

14th August 2022
This drone is collecting data which farmers can then access on the yield management platform. Photo: Supplied/Aerobotics

How the Internet of Things is transforming agri

13th August 2022
His life took a turn for the worst when he ended up in jail for dealing in drugs, but Thembinkosi Matika turned his life around and now helps others through his Legacy Farming Project. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Drug dealer turned farmer ploughs back

12th August 2022

Relief! Govt convinces EU to save SA citrus

How the Internet of Things is transforming agri

She bosses: ‘We see farming changing for good’

Drug dealer turned farmer ploughs back

Beat the winter blues with yummy butter chicken

ICYMI: Police recover stolen livestock

THE NEW FACE OF SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURE

With 12 global awards in the first three years of its existence, Food For Mzansi is much more than an agriculture publication. It is a movement, unashamedly saluting the unsung heroes of South African agriculture. We believe in the power of agriculture to promote nation building and social cohesion by telling stories that are often overlooked by broader society.

Agripreneur 101: Regeneration at the heart of this salt company

R350 grant puts sisters on agri path to success

Farmer support: KZN municipality leads the way

ICYMI: Below-normal winter rainfall to continue

This week’s agriculture events: 15 to 18 August 2022

Farmer 101: Top tips to grow spring onions

  • Our Story
  • Contact Us
  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Copyright

Contact us
Office: +27 21 879 1824
News: info@foodformzansi.co.za
Advertising: sales@foodformzansi.co.za

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Changemakers
  • Lifestyle
  • Farmer’s Inside Track
  • Food for Thought

Copyright © 2021 Food for Mzansi

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.