Should President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA) speech not address food security policy, the agriculture sector’s future viability will come under threat, says industry body Agri SA.

The organisation says that, to prevent any regression in the sector’s gains made in the last two years, including contributing more than R119-billion to the economy in 2020 and employing more than 800 000 people in 2021, the President must address four policy areas.

These are rural safety, access to land, access to working capital and investment in infrastructure and technology.

“Rural safety is a food security imperative. Without safe farming communities, South Africa will continue to see a rapid decline in the number of farmers in the country and fail to attract new ones. And rural safety is not just about farmers.

“It is about workers and the community ecosystems that support food production,” says Agri SA executive director Christo van der Rheede.

Agri SA is driving efforts to develop a sector-led farming communities safety plan; however, the organisation says community vigilance is not enough.

Van der Rheede emphasises that Ramaphosa needs to announce implementable initiatives for government to partner with farming communities that make rural safety a national priority and ensure a food secure future for South Africa.

Further, commercial sustainability in agriculture requires legal certainty on property rights.

Agri SA believes the key to food security, sector growth and inclusivity lies in better and more secure access to land – not the arbitrary deprivation of access to land.

“Government, therefore, needs to abandon expropriation without compensation and implement two key interventions for meaningful land reform without killing this vibrant sector.

“Release State-owned land to South African black, female and youth entrants to the agricultural sector; and provide black and women entrants secure tenure on the land they farm so they can use it to access capital,” Van der Rheede suggests.

COSTS & INVESTMENT MATTERS

Agri SA states that Covid-19’s impact on global supply chains has resulted in a drastic rise in the cost of agricultural inputs, exacerbating the impact of policies like the national minimum wage.

These and other challenges make it imperative that farmers have access to working capital, which has also been identified in the Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Plan (ERRP).

Assets such as land and transferable water rights are vital tools for farmers to access capital.

“Unfortunately, in addition to expropriation without compensation, government has launched an assault on the transferability of water rights. Even after its position was rejected by the Supreme Court of Appeals, government has insisted on appealing to the Constitutional Court.

“For the sake of the nation’s food security, farmers and policy certainty in the sector, this appeal must be withdrawn, Van der Rheede says, referring to the matter that Agri SA was helping to contest in court, pleading that water use rights should be transferable.

Moreover, it is essential that the infrastructure investment envisioned in the ERRP moves into swift action this year.

The entire agricultural value chain depends on workers’ ability to get to work, as well as farmers’ ability to receive their inputs and send their produce to market.

Infrastructure is therefore key to food security, Van der Rheede points out.

“However, the escalating cost and the increasing difficulty of transporting agricultural goods is a threat to the availability, quality and especially the affordability of food – the essential pillars of food security.”

It is also a threat to South Africa’s agricultural exports, he adds.

Beyond the ERRP, Agri SA believes the President must announce near-term steps to address the degraded state of the country’s road and rail infrastructure, as well as the challenges at the nation’s harbours, which are so crucial to importers, and more importantly, South African agricultural exporters.

Agri SA concludes that announcements regarding these priorities are essential to the success of the agricultural sector and for the successful implementation of the ERRP.