Industry players are hoping a fertiliser boost by the government worth over R40 million will be enough to help struggling sugarcane farmers in Mpumalanga get back on their feet.
This follows a special visit to the province by the national minister of agriculture, Thoko Didiza, together with the South African Farmers Development Association’s (Safda) chief executive officer, Dr Siyabonga Madlala. During the visit, fertilisers and a cheque to the tune of R42.2 million were handed over to the Nkomazi sugarcane small-scale growers, which is about 1 400 farmers.
According to Madlala, the donation by government could have not come at a better time for these sugarcane growers who are barely coping with the high operational costs involved in sugarcane production. This, he pointed out, is impacting on their productivity, profit, and growth.
A major shot in the arm
“We are very excited as farmers because we had no hope of how we would fertilise our seeds. With the trippling of the fertiliser prices, farmers could only afford half the [usual amount] of fertilisers they normally buy.
“This top up means the yields will be better for the next harvesting. This donation will see an injection worth R 100 million into the economy of this area,” he said.
‘Now we can go back to farm’
In the past two years, the sugar industry took a couple of hard beatings brought on by floods, Covid-19, drought, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sugar tax.
Farmers specifically, Madlala pointed out, have had to survive with the little that they had been operating with.
“Generally, we have been surviving. The department has helped us with fertilisers in 2018/19 [and] the farmers [kept] afloat. This time around when the Russia-Ukraine war hit us, the prices of fertiliser and diesel escalated.
“By June, we realised that our farmers are not going to survive this, as Safda we came together and put a business plan to the department and we got the minister to hear us and here we are today,” Madlala said.
Sweet blessings
Bheki Mnisi, farmer production support unit chairperson at the Komati and Malelane sugar mills, applauded the department and Safda for their collaboration in ensuring the needs of the farmers were prioritised.
“We have 1 432 farmers who are set to benefit from this fertiliser handover and we are grateful for this development.
“We are also happy that the sugarcane industry is being recognised and transformed. The fertiliser just came in at the right time when we as farmers were in the dark. Now we can go back to farm,” he said.
KZN up next…
In an interview with Food For Mzansi, Didiza expressed that her department’s intervention was as a result of the undesirable impact that the Russia-Ukraine war has had on the agricultural value chain and food security in the country.
“The prices of fertilisers have been too high and, as government, we decided that it was necessary to support smallholder farmers with fertilisers so that they can go back to the field.
“We work with district municipalities, the provincial department of agriculture, farmers’ associations and commodity groups who work with farmers daily. Here in Nkomazi, we have a farmer production support unit which is part of the agri-parks programme where we support farmers with production inputs,” she said.
Didiza urged farmers to refrain from selling their fertilisers as this would be a step backwards in the strides made by the government to help struggling farmers and revive the agricultural sector.
The department said the support was mainly focused on sugarcane small-scale farmers in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga. A visit to farmers in KZN is in the pipeline and over 10 000 sugarcane farmers are expected to benefit from a fertiliser donation worth R99 million.
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