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Giving a voice to black farmers

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The SA Farmers’ Development Association (Safda) was formed out of a deep need for black sugar cane farmers to have their voices heard in the South African sugar industry.

When Safda was formed a mere three years ago, on November 25 2015, our focus was to make a difference to the lives of people in our communities and even the economies in the deep rural areas where many of us grew up – KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.

For many of us black farmers, the lack of income and timeous access to capital and inputs are not theoretical exercises.

We have stood side by side with our grandparents from the time we could walk and help to pull weeds out of the ground.

We have watched silently as our mothers struggled day after day to put food on broken tables.

We have stood helplessly next to our fathers while they bowed their heads after looking at the rotting cane in the field.

These are the practical experiences that lie at the root of Safda’s drive for transformation.

This is the enduring struggle that kept Safda going during its darkest days and, now that we have the means to change the way the South African sugar industry operates, this is the reality we can never go back to.

With Safda’s official recognition by government and the SA Sugar Association through the Government Gazette on October 9, there is no time to linger.

Siyabonga Madlala

This is a major first step for sustainable transformation in the agricultural sector, which allows more black participants to make an active contribution in ensuring the sustainability of the sector.

During this short period, Safda has been instrumental in positively affecting the lives of small-scale and land reform sugar cane farmers through a dedicated focus on a transformation plan.

Under this programme, small-scale and land reform farmers have benefited from eight targeted interventions focused on alleviating the financial burden of these categories of farmers.

We have already received extremely positive feedback on these transformation interventions and are confident that we are on the right path.

There is little doubt that this has had a positive effect on the lives of our farmers, who are struggling to break even.

In fact, a number of our farmers will be starting the new season this month in debt, which means that they will not have the funds to replant or even manage their fields.

To exacerbate matters, they do not have the option of accessing capital.

We simply cannot allow this state of affairs to continue. Our rural communities and economies – both formal and informal – do not have a lot of options to diversify their income streams.

With the official recognition of Safda and the gazetting of transitional arrangements, which are in place until March 2020, the sugar industry has a unique opportunity to set the benchmark for other commodity organisations by harnessing the knowledge of black South Africans.

Black small-scale farmers represent about 90% of the sugar industry, but are only able to contribute about 10% of sugar cane production.

Over the past two decades, there has been a rapid decline in small-scale sugar cane farmers, who numbered about 50 000 in the early 2000s, but are today sitting at about 19 000.

This is clearly a concern – particularly when it is seen from the perspective of rural households and the rural economy.

This is at the heart of Safda’s focus areas of transformation, land reform and small-scale farmers, grower capacity development, grower financing and bulk buying, and diversification and value-chain participation.

Safda’s primary focus is to grow the industry subject to meaningful participation by black growers in the value chain and diversification into ethanol, cogeneration and bio-based products.

Meaningful participation means ownership, management and control of a diversified sugar industry – and assistance in finding sustainable solutions for black small-scale and land reform farmers who are bearing the brunt of imports, the health promotion levy, rising input costs and a lack of access to finance.

Madlala is executive chair of the SA Farmers’ Development Association

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