It’s been a helluva 2022 for Mzansi’s food producers. Throughout the year, farmers have reported declines on several fronts, but optimism for the new year ahead remains high.
Farmers have had to deal with poorly functioning infrastructure such as roads, rail, ports, water, and electricity, to service delivery problems in municipalities, disease outbreaks and even unfavourable weather conditions. No doubt, Mzansi’s farmers have seen it all this year and more.
But while the year 2022 presented various challenges to the sector, farmers remained resilient.
In this article, some of Mzansi’s top young farmers reflect on the past 12 months and highlight their hopes for 2023.
Every disaster breeds opportunity
Livestock and crop farmer from the Northern Cape, Kedibonye Kaweng, describes 2022 as difficult.
Kaweng, who has been farming since 2013, acknowledges just how tough it can get in Mzansi’s agri sector. As a farmer, she has survived far worse than what 2022 has thrown her way.
“It’s been a difficult year indeed, with production input costs, load shedding, and natural disasters like floods, veld fires, and outbreaks like foot-and-mouth disease.
“However, with every disaster there is an opportunity. We have shown resilience and have risen above it all. I hope to utilise opportunities presented to us such as Land Bank blended finance,” she says.
With her husband and three boys by her side, she is ready to face the future.
Phaladi strikes a balance
Most of 2022 has been a steep uphill battle for agriculture and consumers, reckons Free State grain farmer Phaladi Matsole.
Not only were sporadic price hikes a great concern for consumers, but producers had it hard with skyrocketing seed and fertiliser prices as well.
“It was a season with local and global disasters like Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war, which hurt agriculture in our own country.”
But while 2022 offered many lessons – some more expensive than others – the sector has much to look forward to, says Matsole.
“One of my lessons was to strike balance between production and agro-processing so as to eliminate the middleman and add more value to my own produce.”
Losing her father and mentor
Livestock farmer Annalea van Niekerk from Rietz in the Free State, has had the worst year possible. Her father, who was her farming mentor, suddenly died in September.
It has been a difficult time for her and her family which negatively affected their farming operations.
“What I have learned after his passing was how his teachings prepared me for farming on my own and [being] able to handle things on my own,” Van Niekerk told Food For Mzansi.
“It made me realise how important mentors are in our lives and [that we need] to have the right mentors to prepare us for situations that we might find ourselves in. He really prepared me. There are situations where I [wonder about] what to do next, but [then] I remember his words of wisdom.”
Time to make that energy switch
Kobedi Pilane says as a poultry farmer he anticipates a more productive 2023.
“It should be a year of better revenue for poultry producers as the economy continues to improve coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the power outages due to load shedding are threatening to disrupt production,” he says.
Like many other farmers, Pilane was forced to consider solar energy to power his farm when the lights go off. He plans to have the system fully installed early next year.
“I have been paying a lot for diesel to keep the power on via the generator and it’s unsustainable and costly. This solar system will reduce the burden.”
Another concern for poultry farmers is access to good quality and affordable feed, Pilane points out.
“The prices are unreasonably high,” he states.
“In 2023, the demand for poultry and poultry products will increase making poultry the main source of protein in South Africa. As such, poultry producers are poised to make better revenues,” Pilane believes.
Going global
Lebogang Mashigo, a poultry farmer in Mpumalanga, says the ailing economy and input costs of the country made day-to-day operations on her farming difficult.
But on a brighter note, Mashigo is excited that she recently caught the attention of the MEC for agriculture in Mpumalanga, which led to her receiving much-needed assistance.
“The department allocated an agricultural economist to assist me to build a bankable business plan. I have also sent in a formal request for funding from the provincial department.
“I was also nominated for an international award which saw me travel to Britain to attend the She Inspires Awards hosted in Manchester. Here, I got to make contacts and share my business journey,” Mashigo says.
A better year for sheep farmers
The sheep and wool industry have had it tough this year and Eben du Plessis, a farmer from the Eastern Cape, knows this all too well. South Africa’s wool industry found itself in a nightmare scenario this year when China – our biggest wool client – banned imports from Mzansi.
The nearly four-month ban cost the local industry about R734.15 million in revenue, the National Wool Growers Association said at the time.
But despite this, farmers stood up and rose above the challenges, Du Plessis says.
“We kept the nation fed and contributed the most to the economy under very difficult conditions.”
Du Plessis does, however, have one grumble around farmers being price takers. “Personally, I feel that [it] is very unfair for us as farmers to be price takers. We must try and produce the absolute best we can, and we must wait for the buyer to give us what they feel is the best for our product. We need to get to a point where we can determine our own future,” he says.
As an optimist, Du Plessis is generally excited about what lies in store for him and his agribusiness.
“I believe that we will have a brilliant year in 2023. We had good early summer rains, and the conditions are favourable for the agricultural environment.”
‘The year of collaboration’
For deciduous fruit farmer Dibesho Serage in Limpopo, the year 2022 has not been all that bad. His delight stems from good climate conditions which led to a good fruit set.
“Our fruit was good and the size was satisfactory.”
Serage does, however, add that disruptions in power supply affected their irrigation schedules.
“When there is load shedding we cannot water our fruits and that has affected us. We had a good size, but we could have [had a] better size.
“The Transnet strike really took a knock on us because those farmers who were exporting could not do so. As a result, farmers had to write off their stock because it could not move at the ports,” he explains.
He hopes 2023 is a year of collaboration between government and farmers as farmers are still recovering from the pandemic, he adds.
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