Agricultural policy in South Africa

 

AGRICULTURE, RURAL POVERTY AND FOOD SECURITY

While past policy has contributed to rural impoverishment, new policies will create the
opportunity for reforms which will enable agriculture to make a much larger contribution to poverty alleviation and enhanced national and household food security in future.
An estimated 16 million South Africans are living in poverty, with its incidence highest in rural areas and among female-headed households. It is estimated that 72 % of poor people live in rural areas, and that about 70 % of rural people are poor. The rural concentration of poverty should not detract attention from urban poverty. The point is, however, that poverty in rural areas is associated with agricultural policies which persistently marginalised small scale black farmers as their access to resources such as land, credit and technical know-how was curtailed.
Food insecurity, defined as a lack of access to adequate, safe and nutritious food, is closely associated with poverty. It can ultimately only be addressed as part of a broader attack on poverty, which will include direct employment, income and welfare measures. 

While there is adequate food at national level, some 30 to 50 % of the population has insufficient food, or is exposed to an imbalanced diet, as a result of low incomes. Emphasis will therefore be placed on food security at household level. Programmes will be examined in terms of their direct as well as indirect contribution to household food security through their impact on rural incomes and the distribution of those incomes. Increasing the production of small scale farmers will improve the availability and nutritional content of food, and hence food security generally among the poor. A large proportion of the rural black population consists of women, and those of a working age, in particular, outnumber men. With the incidence of poverty highest in female-headed households, all programmes will be examined to ensure that women at least have equalaccess and that programmes are targeted at them. 

Rural households 

 However, to determine policy priorities to address poverty and food insecurity, and to assess the role that agriculture can play in the national effort, it is necessary to understand how people in rural areas create livelihoods. Poor rural households combine their resources in a variety of ways to enable them to maintain a minimum living standard. These livelihood strategies include agricultural production, off-farm wage labour, small and micro-enterprise activities, claims against the state (e.g. pensions) and reliance on social networks. Poor people have few opportunities for economic activity. For example, in 1993 it was estimated that only 26 % of rural African households had access to land for cultivation and that regular wages were the primary source of income for only 32 % of the poor. The central challenge for agriculture in poverty alleviation and food security for the rural population is therefore to contribute to improved livelihoods and employment.
 

One of the encouraging developments in recent years has been the growth in support for home gardens, especially in peri-urban and urban areas, where small plots, of vegetables in particular, can contribute significantly to both livelihoods and nutritional standards. The involvement of NGOs and sponsorship of the private sector are welcomed by the Government. However, much more needs to be done, especially among the poor in rural areas, to stimulate home gardening.
 

Extension services have a major role to play in promoting production and, at the same time,
encouraging suppliers of seed, tools and production requirements to devote more attention to this currently neglected section of the economy. The contribution that own production can make to alleviating rural poverty is restricted, however, by factors such as the availabilty of land, the difficulties of obtaining water, or a lack of family labour. Employment opportunities therefore remain the most critical issue for many rural households.

Formal agriculture provides employment (including seasonal and contract employment) for
about 1 million farm workers, albeit often at very low incomes. In addition, the smallholder
sector provides full or part-time employment for at least a further 1 million households. Thus some 2 million households derive some or all of their income from agriculture. This represents about 10 million people or almost 25 % of South Africa's population. Furthermore, while farming is an important direct source of employment in the economy, these figures underestimate its significance, as they ignore the employment effects of agriculture's linkages with the rest of the economy. For example, agro-processing and the food industry generally are major sources of employment. 

Generally, the number of jobs created per unit of investment is higher in agriculture compared to other sectors. This implies that growth in agricultural output overall has a greater impact on employment creation. Yet in recent years, South Africa has witnessed a decline in full-time agricultural employment. Current legislation to improve security in employment has not yet created the desired improvement in labour relations and employers' investment in labour skills which, in due course, are expected to raise employment levels in agriculture. 

Small scale farming 

The concept of small scale agriculture in South Africa is laden with subjectivity and has been associated with non-productive and non-commercially viable agriculture. In recent years, some effort has been made to find a socio-economically accurate definition of a small scale farmer that was relevant to South Africa. An appropriate definition would then enable the Government to make black farmers the target of various support measures that would improve their access to resources, thus redressing the inequities created by past apartheid policies. The problem is that black farmers are not a homogeneous group and a number of them cannot be defined as small scale, whether `small' refers to land size, income or labour utilisation.
 

The question is whether a precise definition of small scale farmers is required. The reality faced by small scale black farmers is recognised. In general, most black farmers, whether small scale or not, have limited access to land and capital, and have received inadequate or inappropriate research and extension support. This has resulted in chronically low standards of living and reliance to a greater or lesser extent on subsistence production. To achieve the Government's objectives of black empowerment and poverty alleviation, policy must address problems faced by black farmers in general and resource-poor farmers in particular.
Furthermore, increasing productivity in small scale agriculture will have significant broader
economic benefits. Sustained and significant growth in employment and livelihoods in
agriculture is unlikely to be achieved from formal wage employment alone. The rate and extent of development in a more diversified farm sector, but especially in small scale agriculture, will determine such growth. 

There is considerable international evidence of the efficiency and labour intensity of small-farm agriculture in a wide variety of agro-ecological circumstances. While this may not necessarily apply in all parts of South Africa, small scale farming generally means that labour is substituted for machines. Therefore production outlays that would have been allocated to paying interest, loan repayment and depreciation costs on machinery, are instead paid as wages to labour, or earned as self-employment incomes by family farmers. In addition, small-farmers tend to make crop choices different from those made by large farmers. In particular, they tend to allocate more of their land to staple foods, vegetables, and drought-resistant crops that are less risky and also more labour intensive than the monocrop agriculture favoured on large farms.
 

Small-farmers, on international evidence, also tend to use their land productively for larger parts of the year than large-scale farmers. In particular, small-farmers' access to family labour often encourages them to make year-round use of available irrigation water. Finally, small-farm production is indirectly labour creating as well, because it results in income flows to low-income rural dwellers who tend to purchase services, building materials and consumer goods from local small scale rural services and industries.

Food security at national level 

South Africa has been meeting its food consumption requirements with domestic production for most items in most years. Projections show that the growing population, increases in income levels, and changes in preferences will lead to an increased demand for food, particularly for wheat, dairy products and meat, with a slower growth in demand for maize.
In aggregate, together with regional and international markets, this gives a buoyant picture of demand for the sector, with major opportunities for producers. The Government's approach is to promote comparative advantage and the efficient use of productive resources, encouraging the development of regional and international trading links, for exports as well as imports, as required.
 

Regarding food imports, South Africa's port facilities for the bulk handling of grains are
adequate for the country's presently envisaged import requirements. However, the capacity is not without limitations especially when the SADC's requirements have to be met. These will,however, be partly met through developments to other ports in the region. 

Agriculture in the region 

The economies of the region are mostly dominated by agriculture. South Africa apart, agriculture employs 70 to 80 % of the total labour force and contributes about 35 % of the region's GNP and 30 % of its foreign earnings. The present flow of trade between the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the rest of the SADC countries, shows that SACU has a surplus of agricultural exports over imports to the other countries with the exception of Zimbabwe. Growth in agriculture, fostered by the move toward a free trade area and by internal market reforms in South Africa and in some of our neighbours, will serve to broaden and support trade and economic development in the region. 

Source:

Food and Agriculture Organization

Ministry for Agriculture and Land Affairs (South Africa)

Agricultural policy in South Africa

For further information contact:
Tracey Simbi
Ministry for Agriculture and Land Affairs
Private Bag X116, PRETORIA 0001

Mozambique Doing Business - South Africa

2025

Link: https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/saf178047.pdf

 

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