It's Time For Smallholder Farmers To Enter Value Chains

The expropriation without compensation debate has been making national headlines since December, with many proponents arguing that it would economically empower the poor. However, Zamikhaya Maseti, a senior specialist for public and sector policy at the Land Bank, says that no land reform policy can be successful if new black farmers do not have adequate access to markets.

- Zamikhaya Maseti

With land expropriation without compensation set to become a reality and a defining feature of South Africa’s land reform trajectory beyond 2019, its implementation is expected to enable fundamental transformation across the entire agricultural value chain, from primary to secondary agriculture and even at tertiary level.

It would not be enough to merely transfer agricultural land without radically altering the balance of forces in both the agro-business and retail supply value chains.

A successful land reform programme should bring about patterns of economic participation and empowerment across the agriculture sector that enable marginalised groups to increase the size of their farms, resulting in their ability to farm on a sustainable scale.

If this implementation does not result in meaningful economic transformation and participation, it will indeed be meaningless. South Africa’s agro-food market landscape has grown, but black producers have been excluded from the sector. This skew towards large producers has been the norm in the sector for many years. Therefore, any discussion of fundamental transformation within the agro-food or business value chain must consider this current reality.

This is something that the Agricultural Policy Action Plan (APAP) is grappling with, and it is calling on all actors in the sector to intervene.

CHALLENGES FACING SMALLHOLDERS

In appraising the main challenges facing small commercial producers in the agro-business sector, the APAP notes the following: