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First screen new farmers - Land Bank

Cape Town - Prospective black farmers should comply with certain criteria before being settled on farms.

Such farmers should first have to undergo a trial period before the land is awarded to them, said the Land Bank in a study it undertook into the circumstances of emerging farmers financed by the bank.

The report proposes various policy changes to clear obstacles standing in the way of the successful establishment of emerging farmers.

According to the report, which was released last week, most emerging farmers financed by the bank are not meeting their loan obligations and are facing legal action.

Another innovative proposal is a three-year lease period before emerging farmers are eventually settled on the forms.

The bank further says that there is a need to establish how viable it is to farm on a particular piece of ground.

Agri SA executive director Hans van der Merwe says the report clearly sets out the problems experienced by new entrants to the industry.

It also refutes the populist view that access to agricultural land signifies wealth.

According to the report, those black farmers who have achieved success have either received agricultural training or are retired professional people who have used their pension money to establish their farming business, or who have inherited farms.

The compilers of the report lay part of the blame for the failure of emerging farmers at the door of institutions supposed to help them. The institutions’ service, systems and adaptability play a role in the successful or unsuccessful establishment of emerging farmers.

The farmers and the land on which they want to farm also contribute to success or failure.

The report says there is a relationship between successful establishment of a farm and the size and quality of the land on which to farm.

The bank says agriculture's development landscape consists of people who are serious about farming successfully as well as those who do not really want to farm.

Many emerging farmers do not have the skills and basic resources to overcome the challenges of farming, while there are farms on which even good farmers find it difficult to succeed.

The bank also proposes the putting together of a comprehensive support package for emerging farmers.

This will include the provision of information services, training in financial management and support services from other bodies so that the Land Bank can focus exclusively on supplying the necessary finance.

Interest rates should also be lower than market rates and government should compensate the Land Bank for the difference.

A further proposal is that certain debts be partially or fully written off.

Debts incurred between 1997 and 2003 should be fully written off because emerging farmers at that time received very little, if any, assistance from the state and prices of products were very low.

Half of the debt that emerging farmers incurred between 2003 and 2005 should also be written off because during that period natural disasters impacted emerging farmers.

No write-offs are proposed for loans taken after 2006.

Van der Merwe said he welcomed the clear exposition of the problems experienced in establishing new farmers and the practical recommendations in the report.

He said Agri SA and its affiliates had already themselves done work in this regard.

This included the development of selection criteria that could be used to identify potential emerging farmers.

Agri SA’s development programmes focus on training and marketing support.

Van der Merwe said that AgriSA trusted that the report’s insights into development agriculture would be considered together with the broader policy processes currently under way in terms of land reform and farmer development.

- Sake24

For business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.
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