Agri SA and the it company Item Online recently launched a project that will compile a comprehensive database for agriculture in South Africa. The database will clarify who owns what land in the country, as it’s thought more black people own land than is reflected in the Ddepartment of Land Affairs’ statistics.“We also need clarification on whether land is being used productively or not,” explained Cchristo Rroodt, the director of Iitem Oonline.
He added that at a recent Agri SA congress, the project received the support of minister of agriculture and land affairs Lulama Xingwana and director-general of agriculture Njabulo Nduli. The project is being executed with the assistance of the Ddepartment of Agriculture and Land Affairs and the private sector’s Executive Forum.
Agri Africa, a subsidiary of Iitem Oonline, is compiling the integrated database from data received from the surveyor general and deeds office on roughly 482 500 tracts of farmland.
Organised agriculture will then supply the information on the current status of specific tracts, continuously updating the database.Roodt said that financial institutions, insurers, agri businesses, manufacturers, municipalities and international organisations had all shown an interest in using the platform to update and consolidate their data on South African agriculture. – Wouter Kriel
