Grain SA has reiterated its support for the guidelines for land reform in the National Development Plan (NDP)  – 20% of agricultural land by 2030 on a district basis – but opposes Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti’s latest proposals.

“Grain producers say no to the Minister’s 50:50 plans that fall outside of governments policy spelt out in the NDP,” Grain SA CEO Jannie de Villiers said on Thursday at a press conference held at Nampo Park, just outside Bothaville.

Nkwinti announced the land reform proposals in Parliament last Friday, following which Agri SA president Johannes Möller said the Minister’s categorisation of farms and limitations on farm sizes were a step backwards towards an outdated socialist and central planning approach, which was unaffordable and would have catastrophic implications for sustaining, viable and competitive commercial agricultural sector. 

“It is also disappointing that the Minister again shifted targets in this regard, which were recently announced,” he added.

De Villiers said Nkwinti’s plans were unconstitutional and detrimental to the poor, stressing that the “first need is food; not owning land”. 

Möller also said the announcement was made while a Ministerial consultation process was under way on issues such as the limitation on land holdings and alternative models for empowerment. 

“During the process of debating proposals in the Green Paper on Land Reform, research on international experience indicated that limitations on landholdings are unpractical. A number of reasons including that of agriculture economics, administrative application, corruption and legal uncertainty were cited as reasons why this approach towards land reform should rather be avoided,” Agri SA explained.

Further, more than 60% of the farmland in South Africa was covered by debt, while about 83% of farmers produced food with production loans.

“If the 50:50 proposal is implemented, 83% of farmers won’t have production loans to produce food on half the land. Our infrastructure cannot carry imports of the magnitude we would need,” De Villiers emphasised.

He questioned why Nkwinti had not responded to Grain SA’s moderate proposals that were already being practiced and working, adding that by government’s own admission land reform, thus far, was a 90% failure.

The Grain SA Farmer Development Plan currently had thousands of black grain farmers producing commercial yields, but could not access finance because of a lack of title deeds.

South Africa’s grain producers were also opposed to land ceilings.

De Villiers highlighted that the Minister of Labour,  by comparison, consulted with workers on minimum wage before announcements, while Nkwinti announced land ceilings without talking to the farmers on the levels and definitions. “He knows we are against it.”
He asked where the concept of land ceilings was found in the NDP or Constitution, but added that, for future expansion, land ceilings could, possibly, be entertained.

“Look at what the market is dictating at Nampo – scale is the solution if [there is] no government support. If government can support [its farmers] like the European Union (30% of farmers income is from subsidies), you can go for smaller [farm] sizes, but without subsidies, scale is your only answer,” De Villiers advised.

Since 1997, government emphasised the need for farmers to “go bigger” and “we responded” he said.

“Our farmworkers are running satellite-operated computerised machines to produce millions of tons of good-quality food for our nation. Do we want to go back to hand planting (subsistence) for own use?” De Villiers asked.

South Africa’s grain producers (black and white) were, however, for the guidelines for land reform in the NDP. “We will assist in making this a reality,” De Villiers stated.

Agri SA hoped that with the further debating of the land reform proposals, a willingness to consider the concerns with the necessary objectivity and considering the alternative approaches proposed by the sector which, with the necessary support by the State, would render much better results at a lower cost.