Staff Reporter
The African Farmers Association of South Africa (AFASA) says COVID-19 has exposed the long-term inequalities which characterise the agricultural sector resulting in most smallholder farmers enjoying limited growth.
AFASA president Vuyokazi Mahlati says the stop-gap measures taken by the government after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a 21-day national lockdown to try and contain the spread of the coronavirus were a clear indication that smallholder farmers, most of whom are black, needed more support to allow them to run sustainable operations and grow.
While welcoming state support to the sector in the face of disruptions caused by COVID-19, Mahlati said the crisis exposed the fundamental contributors to inequality and dualism in agriculture and suggested a new marketing approach allowing more participation by smallholder farmers.
“We believe that our response should be beyond just kneejerk, but contribute to building a foundation for an inclusive and corrective turnaround,” said Mahlati in a statement released this week.
The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development has announced a R100-million support facility for the Land Bank to cushion loans during this period and R1.2-billion for smallholder farmers.
Mahlati bemoaned the recent surge in the country’s staple white maize price which broke a four-year record saying it only benefitted large-scale commercial farmers.
“South Africa’s staple white maize prices on 23 March 2020 reached the highest levels last seen in 2016, at R3 981 per tonne. Sadly this mainly benefits a few commercial farmers and does not go far in addressing food insecurity and poverty,” said the AFASA leader.
Mahlati suggested the government should declare sorghum an alternative staple starch to maize, rice and wheat, and ring-fence 60 percent of sorghum production supply to black farmers.
She also suggested that the agricultural department should immediately create a marketing pool for maize, vegetables, beef and mutton meat from black farmers to supply local retailers, wholesalers and institutional markets.
“To this end we request the minister to immediately . . . enforce National Fresh Produce Markets to procure from black farmers using the aforementioned marketing pools to be created immediately. One marketing pool for black farmers in each province,” she said.
Mahlati said the National Red Meat Programme should also be expanded to ensure the approximately 5.5 million cattle owned by black farmers are conditioned and made ready for the local market.
“We believe that through these measures we shall not only flatten the COVID-19 curve, but will also set our country on a growth and sustainable curve,” she concluded.