Farmer development remains a key instrument in making sure that farmers receive the necessary upliftment and help from the government and the private sector to ensure that food producers remain deeply rooted in what they do best.
During the Food For Mzansi Young Farmers Indaba heavyweights in the organised agriculture space said pointing fingers at one another regarding the past was not going to take the sector anywhere.
‘We need each other’
Role players spoke about the importance of unity amid the splits that continue to happen especially mainly in the black organised agriculture.
National African Farmers Union (Nafu) president Motsepe Matlala said farmers should not apologise for being farmers and wanting to make money, because farming is a business.
He urged farmers to unite not only in words but also in action because it was extremely important that despite the history of the country, farmers continue to make inroads in agriculture.
“We know that millions have been put in by the government, but the output is shocking. We need to come together as farmers and have difficult conversations about how we want to see the sector grow. Let us not point fingers at one another but work together for the betterment of generations to come,” he said.
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Young leaders should take charge
Meanwhile, Black Agricultural Commodity Federation chief executive Moshe Swartz said farmers cannot be blamed for having different ideologies.
“We cannot be blamed for seeing one thing in different ideologies, we cannot question why there are so many different farmers’ organisations when we do not question why there are so many political parties and churches,” he said.
South African Farmers Development Agency (Safda) chief executive Dr Siyabonga Madlala said the only way farmers can be developed is when young leaders proactively take charge of the sector.
“Farming is not politics, but the two cannot be divorced because there are issues that need political will, such as land and resources that farmers need.
“We at Safda have taken charge in the sugar industry, we have seen how black farmers are systematically excluded, in big decision taking tables small scale farmers challenges are not being discussed only commercial topics, we revolutionised that sector,” he said.
Madlala said the backlog of development was too much for leaders to be fighting amongst each other, “We have seen that black farmers are taken as a token to get attention from government, that must come to an end.” he said.
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