The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) has resumed a highly criticised farmer register survey, previously suspended due to the national census.
“We’ve started with the project of registering farmers and are currently in KZN,” Steve Galane, DAFF’s spokesperson said. “We had started early in October and had to put everything on hold because of the national census and this month (November) we’ve resumed the survey.”
He added that the survey is being conducted by 100 field workers, together with extension officers and the provincial departments. Agri SA said it had serious reservations about the status of DAFF’s survey and advised farmers not to participate in it.
In a statement, Agri SA said it is concerned the survey may not be subject to the statutory discipline with which Statistics SA has to comply. Dr Theo de Jager, Agri SA deputy president, said Agri SA hasn’t received clarity on the objective and extent of the survey. Dr De Jager said DAFF told Agri SA that the project is only meant for emerging farmers, but the officials doing the counting have been on its members’ commercial farms. “They don’t even have proper identification,” he said.
Mike Mlengana, president of the African Farmers’ Association of South Africa (Afasa), said Afasa had met with DAFF to discuss the farmer register and had pledged its support. “We’ll make our members available to be of help to the project.” – Peter Mashala
