Profit for purpose is the way to change the farming landscape
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Excerpt from BUSINESS DAY article:
“We need to find innovative ways to leverage challenges, shifting from ‘profit above all’ towards community inclusion and social value creation. According to the recently launched “Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) Baseline Agricultural Outlook 2019–2028”, SA’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).
Prof Ferdi Meyer, a board member of the BFAP, has said that the future of the country’s agriculture sector will be dependent on the government and industry making the right policy and investment choices. Critical policy issues include land reform and farmer support; infrastructure and technology, including water infrastructure; increasing access for local farmers to major international agricultural markets; and developing statistical baseline information to understand activity within SA’s agricultural sector in terms of the entrants of small, black farms and transformation.”
Siyabonga Mdluli
Good day
I hope you are well and safe. I was taken by the this article, together with the article on Daily Maverick, which explores alternative strategies and cooperative partnerships between upcoming black farmers and established commercial white farmers. I believe that the Project CHANGE initiative is a massive step towards the transformation of the agrarian economy. As a result, I have decided to pursuit my Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) study in Development Studies at UKZN, and implement a research project which documents such transformational initiatives. I believe that there are similar but undocumented agrarian private-private partnerships across South Africa, and I would like to make it my initiative to document at least a few in my thesis. I would like to further engage you on this matter, with a hope that you will guide me through my academic journey.