Letter from the editor

If the World Economic Forum (WEF) is to be believed, South Africans are unhealthy, poorly educated and uncooperative.

Never before in the 21 years since South Africa’s transition to a democracy has the ruling party placed so much faith in the contribution that agriculture can make to the country.

The agriculture department is insulting the many hardworking, successful and deserving female farmers in South Africa by saying that Hlengiwe Hlophe is the best commercial female farmer we have.

The South African economy has seen better days. First, the rand nose-dived to a record low of R14/US$, which put a damper on cuts to local fuel prices for September (see page 20).

I had just started writing about South Africa missing out on trade opportunities while its southern hemisphere competitors wasted no time filling the gaps that opened up in international markets (see story on p19, 7 August issue of FW), when my mother called to say it was raining.

I started writing for Farmer’s Weekly about seven years ago. At that time, I was inclined to follow the school of thought which asserted that smallholder farming was a poverty trap, and that only large-scale, commercial farming could successfully respond to the challenge of feeding a fast-growing, rapidly-urbanising world population, while also coping with climate variability and resource scarcity.

Having had quite enough of the constant stream of criticism from fed-up farmers about the various failures of land reform, minister of rural development...