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Spotlight on agriculture

Cape Town - Rising food prices and fears about food security have resulted in government looking at the agricultural sector with fresh eyes.

In this respect it would be advantageous to become involved in the agricultural sector.

This was the message from political consultant Harald Pakendorf at the symposium of the Cape Pomological Association during a presentation on what can be expected from the new government.

Pakendorf says government has recognised the rise in food prices and the absence of food security which had been brought to a head in 2007. It has responded by separating Agriculture and Land Affairs into two separate ministries, namely Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on the one hand and Rural Development and Land Affairs on the other.

He says events on the global stage in 2007, when food prices shot though the roof and food was less readily available, had two consequences.

First, countries such as Arabian countries that do not have arable agricultural land had begun buying up land where arable agricultural soil existed, such as in the Sudan.

Then they began cultivating food for their own people to ensure food security, while people in the countries where they had bought land had to see to themselves.

Pakendorf noted that this differed from cases where large international companies acquired land for food cultivation but then sold it on the local market and elsewhere at prevailing prices.

He says the United Nations has recently warned that countries buying land from other countries are playing with fire.

Secondly, people with money have recognised the profit potential of the agricultural sector and begun to buy shares in agricultural businesses because they can get a better return on the investment there than in other sectors of the economy.

"Government has recognised that these two trends will impede its policy on land reform and food production, which is why it has separated Agriculture and Land Affairs," Pakendorf continued.

"It realised that the two issues actually had nothing to do with each other."

The government had also made it clear, he noted, that it did not intend seizing farmers' land as had happened in Zimbabwe, and which many feared would also happen in South Africa.

He expected that the independent Department of Agriculture would place greater emphasis on food production and commercial farmers would not be fobbed off. Land Reform food production would also be prioritised.

- Sake24.com

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

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