Excerpt from DAILY MAVERICK article:

“When considering strategies to develop farming sustainability, it is doubtful that the notion of ‘profit above all’ will work over the long term. The sector requires strategies that shift towards broader community inclusion and social value creation.

According to the recently launched Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy’s BFAP Baseline Agricultural Outlook 2018–2027, South Africa’s agricultural sector needs to do more to support the targets of transformation, jobs, growth and land reform that have been set by the National Development Plan (NDP).

Speaking recently at the report’s launch, BFAP board member Prof Ferdi Meyer said the future of the country’s agriculture sector would be dependent on government and industry making the right policy and investment choices. He said there were four critical policy issues, namely, land reform and farmer support which includes policy certainty and property rights; infrastructure and technology, including water infrastructure; increasing access for local farmers to the major international agricultural markets; and the development of statistical baseline information to understand activity within South Africa’s agricultural sector in terms of the entrants of small black farms (generally deemed those of about one hectare of land) and transformation.“

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