The impact of the new credit act on agriculture and food production will be devastating, said Santie Geldenhuys of TAU SA. Having spoken to agricultural credit suppliers she said the estimate was that about 15% of South Africa’s commercial farmers would no longer qualify for credit.
“If we consider that there are currently 40 000 commercial farmers in Africa, these figures show that 6 000 of them will not qualify for credit this year, a stark reality confronting food security for everyone in South Africa,” she said.
Geldenhuys defined food security as nourishing food accepted within a given culture, available at all times in quantity, quality and variety, to which everybody had access and which was affordable. She highlighted some key components needed for a farming sector to ensure food security and which currently impacted on food security in South Africa. “We need acceptable road and rail infrastructure to be able to send our produce to the market, effective communication systems to conduct transactions locally and internationally, and a safe working environment for ourselves and our workers. “We also need an affordable labour force without forced wage increases and we need peace of mind regarding land ownership. We can do without the threat of losing our most important production asset to land claims or expropriation. “We need affordable and accessible finance, as well as clean, unpolluted water,” she concluded. eldenhuys stressed that without these enabling factors, the huge numbers of black farmers government was hoping to establish would also be doomed to failure. She said many of the new farmers already lacked a passion for commercial agriculture and, without the necessary expertise, experience and support, they would be doomed to subsistence farming. – Jasper Raats
