By Invitation

According to Andrew Makenete, CEO of Manama Hole Holdings and Calico Capital, South African agriculture is currently operating in a policy vacuum. Speaking at a Friends of UKZN Agric lunch at KwaZulu-Natal’s Royal Show recently, he expanded on the problem and offered some potential solutions.

Their forefathers were the first to step on South African soil, and their modern-day descendants are finally being compensated for the land they were dispossessed of, says Raymond Trollip, leader of KwaZulu-Natal’s diverse Khoi and San descendants.

Speaking recently at a KZN Agricultural Union Special Information Day, Grain SA chairperson Louw Steytler said that the voice of reason would prevail when it came to the country’s land reform and labour legislation.

The number of anti-dumping investigations has risen over the past year amid fierce competition for the food trade. But Alexander Amrein, senior investigator for the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac), says this is not a sign of a global move towards protectionism.

While the mainstream media invariably focuses on the negative aspects of life in South Africa, longer-term trends indicate a silver lining for our beloved country, according to Steuart Pennington, creator of alternative media organisation South Africa: The Good News.

Local soil scientists are refuting the relevance of this 70-year-old system when advances in soil science point to its lack of scientific value and many shortcomings in field conditions.

In this brief summary of an innovative model for land reform in South Africa, farmer and former DA MP Errol Moorcroft demonstrates that, despite the inherent difficulties, the redistribution of land can be a win/win undertaking for all concerned.

Germany has much to offer South Africa in sharing knowledge gained during its post-reunification period. Ilse Aigner, federal minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, explains.

“The country will not be a good place for any of us, unless it’s a good place for all of us,” argues business consultant André Diederichs. He believes that considerable wage increases and other short-term solutions are ultimately unfair to all role players in the agricultural sector, and will cause harm.

The single-minded focus on increasing yield needs to make way for a multi-disciplinary approach which makes healthy food available to all, says Dr Stephanie Midgley, OneWorld Sustainable Investments lead researcher, and Prof Martin de Wit, De Wit Sustainable Options director.

The ANC’s policy decision to do away with the willing-buyer, willing-seller principle has caused dismay in the agricultural sector. But Dr Theo de Jager, deputy president of Agri SA, argues that this attempt by the government to save the faltering land reform process is doomed to fail.

Don’t cut the economic cake into smaller slices. Make it bigger, says Roelof Bezuidenhout.