Sizwe sama Yende
No matter which single party or a coalition government takes over South Africa after the elections, the country’s agricultural policy should not be reviewed.
This is the view of Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agribiz) chief economist, Wandile Sihlobo, who said that the country’s agricultural sector had a unifying vision through the Agriculture and Agro-processing Master Plan (AAMP).
AAMP is one of seven priority plans identified by President Ramaphosa as part of key economic sectors essential for the economic reconstruction and recovery during and post the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In our view, agricultural policy does not require a review. The sector needs a sharper focus on implementing the existing programmes. The focus should be primarily on the execution of responsibilities of the various directorates at the national and provincial levels of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development,” Sihlobo said.
The country’s elections are scheduled for May 29 and, for the first time since democracy, polls suggest that the ANC may lose it majority vote and there may be a coalition government.
Sihlobo said that the AAMP was imperfect as some of its aspects were contested by various social partners during its drafting stages.
He said that most social partners such as the business community, government, and labour, agreed that the AAMP offered a framework to grow the agriculture and agro-processing sector, build competitiveness, attract more investment, improve inclusion, and create jobs.
“These prospects would help to address South Africa’s socioeconomic challenges, particularly in rural areas and small towns,” Sihlobo said.
The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) intention to release roughly 2,5 million hectares of land that is under the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS) to beneficiaries with title deeds would increase the country’s agricultural output across various commodities.
“Through the promise of this land release, the Bureau for Food and Agriculture Policy (BFAP) and ourselves continue to believe that South Africa’s agriculture could continue to grow and expand employment in the coming years,” Sihlobo said.
Sihlobo said that even though he presented the view that the appropriate policies and programmes for the next administration in South Africa’s agriculture needed not to change drastically, additional matters required nations’ focus that has weighed on sentiments in farming and agribusiness.
He said that they included the ongoing El Niño induced drought that devastated the summer grains and oilseed regions, persistent port inefficiencies, poor rail and road infrastructure, and worsening municipal service delivery.
Rising incidents of crime, lingering animal disease challenges, security of electricity supply and increased geopolitical uncertainty remain top-of-mind challenges for agribusinesses, Sihlobo added.
“In a survey we conducted in March 2024, covering businesses operating in all agricultural subsectors across South Africa, the respondents raised these are the most troubling issues they face,” he said.
Sihlobo said one area that the South African government had seen success in opening the export markets for various products. Sihlobo said that the latest successes are the avocados in China, beef exports to Saudi Arabia, and grain exports to Egypt.
“The effort of the government and industry to deal with the EU’s citrus export challenges through the WTO is another commendable step. From now on, widening the export markets should remain a priority for the South African government and organised agriculture. This is even more important in the current environment of the increasingly protectionist world, while South Africa is seeing an increase in production volumes of various products,” he said.
“Exports would not be a success without an increased focus on logistics. The ongoing collaborative effort at the ports and rail should continue and extend to road infrastructure in the small towns where deteriorating roads have presented major costs and inefficiencies to agribusinesses,” he said.
Sihlobo said that South Africa’s agricultural policy did not require a drastic change from now on, but it was better to focus on implementing current policies and programmes.