Barriers to accessing money, struggling to get water licences, legislation on food production, environmental and health and safety issues… The challenges keeping them from going commercial, are starting to look nearly insurmountable to some of South Africa’s food producers. Farmers are once again calling on government to consider how industry red tape is putting them in a bind and hindering their ability to grow.
Nomathemba Langa, a pig farmer from Brits in North West, says she recently had to fork out R250 000 for an environmental impact assessment. As a pig producer, a favourable assessment report is imperative to her farming future as this would license her to breed with more than 300 pigs and sell the meat to retailers.
She started her farm with the intention of growing it to a commercial scale. “However, one will need to comply [with legislation] and the [environmental impact] assessment will be needed. Where do you expect [a small business owner] to get such a huge amount to do the study?” she asks.
What’s worse is that the study could prove not to be in her favour, she tells Food For Mzansi.
“My suggestion is that, even though [environmental assessments] cannot be scrapped out 100%, because it is also good for the environment, government entities could come to the party and pay 50% of the money in assisting farmers with the burden.”
More importantly, pig farmers should be made aware of such requirements through awareness campaigns so that they could plan accordingly, Langa believes.
“The same goes for water rights licences. More awareness is needed so that farmers are not taken by surprise.”
Blended finance models not inclusive
South African Farmers Development Association CEO Dr Siyabonga Madlala believes government can do more to eliminate red tape. For sugarcane growers, the biggest challenge is being excluded from government’s blended finance initiative.
“Government has created tools, such as blended finance, to try and overcome [funding] challenges but the implementation of this policy has limited its impact.
“For instance, the current blended finance fund sits with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and is geared towards agro-processing and horticulture, specifically excluding sugar cane farmers,” Madlala points out.
The fact that farmers are also price takers, while input prices continue to rise, is not helping at all. “Farmers are also faced with challenges of milling capacity. Basically, there is more sugarcane than what millers can crush, and farmers have no control over this,” he says.
Madlala believes several plans are sitting with government to help both upcoming and commercial farmers, but these plans are still paper bound and not actualised.
Summits are a waste of money
Meanwhile, a poultry farmer in Mpumalanga, Lebogang Mashigo, feels that red tape is often unnecessary and furthermore hindering the prospective growth of agri-businesses.
“We are requested to have a bankable business plan, but not everyone has access to an agricultural economist who can advise them to build a bankable business plan [that includes a] financial analysis.
“We are requested to produce financial records with big turnovers that most struggle to reach. It is very difficult to maintain a proper business account and it is not always possible to have proper financial statements because we cannot always afford the services of financial professionals,” she says.
When it comes to agricultural summits which are meant to uncover farming challenges and seek solutions, Mashego reckons they are a waste of time and money, as government is well aware of the struggles that farmers face.
She bluntly believes officials already have the platforms, resources and extension officers to help farmers, along with ample feedback on social media platforms and government websites. “The only challenge is that some of the officials do not implement the good plans in place,” she says.
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