Agriculture master plan is 'step in the right direction'

A step in the right direction for the sector to rebuild its competitiveness, recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, ensure food security, achieve inclusive growth and create sustainable, decent jobs.

This is how the minister of agriculture, land reform and rural development, Thoko Didiza, has hailed the signing of the Agriculture and Agro-processing Master Plan (AAMP). The AAMP document was signed yesterday (Thursday, 12 May) ahead of Didiza’s budget policy speech for 2022.

The document follows extensive research and stakeholder engagements that took more than 24 months. The plan, informed by research deep-dives and data analysis across 17 commodities, is intended to represent a social compact that is co-created by all social partners to promote a number of goals.

These include inclusive agricultural growth, a transparent and predictable policy environment, competitive and transformed food value chains, food secured households, decent jobs, better working conditions and farm safety, to name a few.

Speaking at the signing ceremony yesterday, Didiza said the rationale for social compacting in agriculture is to leverage both the private sector and other social partners.

Didiza was referring to “leveraging [their] capacity, talent, resources and capital to rebuild our country’s agricultural production, infrastructure, and markets in a manner that benefits all social partners”.

WATCH IT HERE: Minister signs the long-awaited master plan

Some of the agreed outcomes

Leading up to the signing of the Master Plan, it emerged that not all social partners and stakeholders had agreed on the final AAMP document.

The African Farmers’ Association of South Africa (Afasa), for one, said that it would not sign if its latest contributions were not included. Last-minute changes were made to the AAMP document with only a some of Afasa’s recommendations added.

Some of the negotiated and agreed outcomes contained in the Master Plan are:

To raise an estimated R9.4 billion for fast-tracking targeted infrastructure maintenance and expansion of irrigation schemes, dams, dipping tanks, fresh produce markets, and processing infrastructure;
To unlock R7 billion in agricultural financing for farmers and SMMEs through the Blended Finance Scheme, Agro-processing Fund, Statutory Levies, State Grants, Industry Trust and Supplier Development Programme;
To allocate a minimum of 3% of retailers and supermarkets’ net profit aligned to BBBEE to the Supplier Development Programme;
To expand the commercial production area by 700 000 hectares of cropland, 19 550 hectares of irrigation and 1.5 million hectares of pastures using PLAS farms and commercial farms;
To increase the share of black farmers in overall production to 20% by 2030 to stimulate meaningful transformation.

Outstanding issues to be explored

The AAMP document, Didiza said, made provision for two processes to be taken forward after the signing ceremony. This she explained was to ensure that all key issues by social partners are fully explored.

“The first is a ‘built-in agenda’ which unpacks the modalities, powers and composition of delivery models, such as value chain round tables, transformation schemes pursued through a public-private partnership to increase black farmers’ participation in production, and labour forums to address conditions of labour,” Didiza said.

She added that the AAMP also made provisions to address unfinished business pertaining to issues of infrastructure, specific aspects of transformation, financing instruments, and other labour issues.

The signing of the Master Plan, the department believed, provided a powerful bridge ahead to keep the unfulfilled concerns of social partners to be tabled during “track 2” negotiations.

These are to focus on the modalities of implementation and to bolster the transformative qualities of the AAMP.

Meanwhile, Didiza vowed that government would continue its effort to intervene in cases where market failures exist, “To ensure fair and meaningful access for all farmers and agripreneurs involved in value chains. In addition to creating enabling legislation and policies, government will also facilitate and stimulate inclusive agricultural growth.”

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WATCH: Exclusive with Didiza on Master Plan signing