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Johannesburg - South Africa's agricultural sector can play a bigger role in the country's industrial development, national commercial farmers body Agri SA said on Thursday.
Agri SA executive director Hans van der Merwe said the union had provided Parliament's committee on trade and industry with more information on the agricultural dimensions of the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP).
"Agriculture could make a bigger contribution to industrial development, job creation and development on a broad basis than is currently the case," said Van der Merwe.
"However, this is only possible if restrictive policies and legislation are addressed and a more production-friendly environment is created," he said.
IPAP was tabled in Parliament in February by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies.
Van der Merwe said agricultural processing and bio-fuels were priority areas highlighted in the IPAP.
He said Agri SA had provided the parliamentary committee with the economic and financial trends in the agricultural sector.
These included an improvement in productivity, which offered the opportunity for growth and development.
Van der Merwe said this was not reflected in the sector's bigger contribution to the economy and more specifically in respect of local processing of products.
"In fact, in recent years South Africa has increasingly imported more processed food products in relation to its export performance," Van der Merwe said in statement.
Exports of processed products increased from R13.7 billion in 2003 to R18.1bn in 2007(32 percent), while imports of processed products increased from R10bn in 2003 to R23.3bn in 2007(132 percent).
He said farmers referred to the "sword of export parity prices" confronting the grain industry, while bio-fuels could give rise to market expansion within the sector and local industrialisation.
Van der Merwe said suggestions made to the committee included a strategic plan for agriculture to be incorporated in the IPAP.
"There are very few indications that the IPAP has considered agriculture's views and points of departure that have already been cleared with the government."
Other suggestions included a specific trade and tariff policy for the agricultural sector, as part of the IPAP, and that agricultural and other legislation negatively impacting the sector be reviewed and amended.
Van der Merwe said land reform should also be implemented with economic realism.
Specific reference was made to the ineffectiveness of land restitution, which had withdrawn agricultural resources from production.
The farmers said the question of "food versus fuel" within the context of the bio-fuel policy should also be re-evaluated from a Southern African perspective.
- Sapa
