While billions of rands have been spent on farmer support in South Africa, experts and farmers have said an effective way of supporting farmers is needed so that they do not become too reliant on the state.
Mmatlou Kalaba, director and senior analyst at the Bureau for Food and Agriculture Policy (BFAP), said to ensure a sustainable sector, the government needed to continue supporting farmers to avoid food shortages.
Look at training and farmer selection
“Farmers will always need support; at different levels of their farming operations, they will always need support. They would need less support if the support they were getting from the government was sufficient and effective enough to carry them through.
“This support could mean basic things efficient roads and infrastructure if such things were operational farmers would not need much support,” he said.
Kalaba said South Africa was one of the countries that could not stop supporting farmers because the food producers were not being subsidised but rather taxed, therefore the support should continue.
“The success rate of government support to farmers is less than 20%. The voices calling for this to stop are much louder than those wanting it restructured. We need to rethink how to implement this,” he said.
Wasted money
“Money has been spent on support for agriculture, but we know that the outcomes are not what was desired. In some cases, resources were wasted and in some cases, the farmers themselves were not ready to receive such support.”
Kalaba explained that training and selection of proper farmers was key in ensuring that support received by the government whether monetary or equipment, can show great results.,
“How support is being implemented in South Africa for farmers are the deeper conversations that must be heard at this moment,” he said.
One voice needed
Meanwhile, National African Farmers Union (Nafu) president Motsepe Matlala, said the government should be utilising organised agriculture and unions to choose who to support.
“Government needs to come to the realisation that it should not be about race for who must get support, the state needs to actually call for one farmer union that speaks in one voice which is development and growth.
“If there is unionism in agriculture, then the support that the government intends to give out to farmers will be more effective than what is currently going on,” he said.
According to Matlala, the government plans to assist farmers who are aligned with farmers’ needs, however, the problem is not having a strategic partner to assist with identifying the right farmers.
“If we look at the past 30 years in which the government has assisted farmers, some farmers have been supported monetary and equipment-wise, but they do not graduate.
“The problem comes to the selection criteria of those farmers. Some commercial farmers who are successful have made it without government support while money is being given to farmers who cannot move from one point to another,” he said.
Mentor and monitor
Ipeleng Kwadi Seboni, a cattle farmer and youth in agriculture and rural development leader, said proper training and mentorship were needed for farmers and not only donations and handouts.
“Only a small fraction of farmers produce much-needed food to support local supply and demand, this is because most are reliant on government support rather than passion and success.
“This leads to their operations not being a success unless they get a push from the government. The reality is that the government needs to get you on track,” she said.
A cattle farmer in Pretoria, Nompumelelo Dhlamini, said she believes the government should continue supporting farmers as their challenges as farmers are not the same.
“Importantly, what the government needs to do is to provide resources and information that work hand in hand with what the farmer is doing. Training and monitoring are critical in ensuring that farmers continue to be supported.
“Skills development courses should be compulsory because that is what will empower farmers and assigning them mentors is also crucial, you cannot do it alone,” she said.
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