News making headlines in FW – 22 May

Land reform is the top news maker this week, after Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti made a surprise announcement that government is considering lowering the land cap from 12 000ha to 5 000ha.

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Farmer’s Weekly news editor Jaco Visser told OFM’s agri-editor, Sabrina Dean, that the proposal has been condemned by all agricultural unions, including Agri SA, Afasa, TAU SA and commodity organisation Grain SA.

Visser said many of the farmer unions are also upset at the fact that so much of time, effort and negotiations had taken place to discuss the 12 000ha proposal – and then suddenly out of the blue government springs this surprise.

“And what leaves a bitter taste was in this Sunday’s newspaper. Big adverts were placed that announced the buy in from organised agriculture – which is an outright lie. There is no truth to the story which has farmer unions up in arms,” said Visser.

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To read more about land reform and other headlines making news, get the 22 May issue of Farmer’s Weekly here.