Growing communities through small-scale farms

Afasa president Mike Mlengana was educated on the proceeds of his father’s surplus produce. Deeply in touch with his roots and South Africa’s current challenges, he describes a solutions-based approach to the problems of food security, community and unemployment.

Growing communities through small-scale farms
- Advertisement -

The role of the smallholder farmer in food security in the context of rural economic development is not simply relevant – it is a matter of survival. The current debacle in land reform is understandable, as it appears to be based on the bizarre premise that every land reform claimant who wants to farm will be able to do so successfully. Imagine ordering a first grader to write, and then, on that child’s continued failure to perform the task, you blame the child for possessing inadequate skills. This is the reality of our expectations of smallholder farmers who, only too predictably, keep failing.

The effectiveness of strategies to grow smallholder farmers is a function of government and its understanding of what needs to be done. The ministry needs capacity, of which it is currently in shockingly short supply. Capacity comes from people with agricultural, scientific and economic knowledge who can monitor, measure and evaluate success and failure. It is the foundation for learning and improvement.

Added to this quandary is the fact that these farmers are hamstrung by a lack of access to ownership of the land they farm. This goes against the Freedom Charter and hampers economic progress.

- Advertisement -

The right man for the job
Selection criteria are vital if the smallholder farmer is to succeed. A farmer should have some experience in the area and the farming activity he or she undertakes, even if the exposure has come only through a rural childhood. The greater the experience, the better are the chances of success. Ambition, drive and a passion to farm are essential characteristics. Business skills form part of the package, but these can be learnt.

A good fit between the farming environment and the farmer is also important. No matter how great the longing may be to farm dairy, for example, all effort and expense will be wasted unless a certain amount of expertise and understanding is invested as well. Once the right people have been identified for the job, a process of moulding can begin.

Providing the market

Farmers need a market, and in the free market system the commercial producer has the edge. The African Farmers’ Association of South Africa (Afasa) has no intention of putting a spoke in the free market wheel, but recognises that the system can be fraught with difficulties for small-scale farmers. Once people with some ability to farm are in place, the key challenge is competition.

These farmers cannot compete with commercial farmers, who have extensive agricultural knowledge, business skills and experience, and the advantage of economies of scale. The commercial farmer is able to take a price cut if the market slips, while the smallholder, with modest herds and flocks and limited land, cannot. The reduction in selling price is simply too great for him to bear and can put him out of business.

As an example, Namibian small-scale cattle farmers excluded from export by an EU ban because of foot-and-mouth disease regulation requirements, could not survive using the interim measure of selling on the domestic market at a substantially reduced price. However, there is a way – already proven in Brazil – for smallholders to have a safe, assured market without disturbing the greater free market.

Smallholders can supply government, as a major consumer, with food for prisons, schools and hospitals. If the government sources 50% to 60% of its requirements from black smallholder farmers, historical injustices and imbalances can be seen to be addressed, and a stable, reliable market created. Once the demand is in place, commercial farmers and agri-businesses can partner with developing farmers.

Food security as a communal need
Smallholder farmers may well be the most important component of food security in South Africa. They can provide food security sustainably because they are born out of a situation of communal need; they come from a culture of ubuntu – a code that recognises the interconnected quality of humanity. The communal farmer provides for the extended family, planting crops and raising cattle to meet the needs of the community first, before selling what is surplus to those needs.

Hunger reduction must be seen as the first step. Once communal farming becomes productive enough to create a secure food supply, the degree of migration from rural areas to urban centres will lessen, as people stay closer to a reliable source of food and to family and community.

Most rural people are fundamentally communal, and a commercial farmer that grows out of a culture of communal need is a farmer that becomes more caring of the next person. In the communal environment, productivity and production are primarily linked to human care and values, without the concepts of profit and ownership being necessarily excluded.

Co-operative work has always been an accepted and necessary component of communal productivity, with communities forming work-related and social networks. There are many black farmers who understand and identify with these principles. If we accept that no one can operate in isolation and that the ‘bird in the gilded cage’ will not survive, then we must all work together.

Job creation and work ethic
Communal smallholders can help with job creation on a temporary basis as the seasons demand. Although the employment offered may be limited, it serves the community in a positive way by teaching people about the ethic of work. Unfortunately, government grants have begun to give rise to a culture of dependence; an unintended consequence that has proved destructive.

This dependence is particularly obvious in subsidised smallholder farms, which is why Afasa works towards self-reliance in rural communities. Self-reliance is essential for sustainable agriculture, another good reason to have intelligent selection criteria for farmers. It makes sense to help those who can perform and produce, rather than those who feel entitled to endless handouts.

Commercial farming will develop naturally with communities, food security and markets in place. Exposure to new farming methods, mechanisation, technology and skills will steadily contribute to an increase in surplus produce.
Wealth creation is a function of entrepreneurial behaviour, and this type of evolving environment will encourage entrepreneurial action.

Trade, small businesses and industries will ultimately lead to economically efficient, self-sufficient villages with their own hospitals and schools.

The danger of desperation
In this scenario, government involvement undergoes a subtle shift and the state becomes an agent that enhances the system and its economy. In the current urban environment, by contrast, we seem to be moving into a way of life and social functioning where individuals no longer perceive each other as human beings. As joblessness, homelessness and hunger increase, the desperation in pockets of the urban population rises, with a commensurately parallel increase in potentially dangerous tensions.

Apartheid had a similar dehumanising effect, and there is no doubt that there are still white farmers who do not see people as individuals, but there is no time to brood over this. Time is running out – we must act. We need decent, robust communities. We need to recognise the value of compassionate help and friendship, and realise that we succeed when we become sharers of wealth. With neither purpose nor vision, with no feeling of community, we stand on the edge of the abyss facing a bleak future.

Agriculture must work towards a common good and speak with a unified voice in the interests of the sector, the country and the next generation. There is no reason for us to go the route of Zimbabwe. We must work diligently in the agricultural landscape, without losing sight of the value that can be contributed by even the smallest farmer.

Email Mike Mlengana
[email protected]
The views expressed in our weekly opinion piece do not necessarily reflect those of Farmer’s Weekly.