Setting up black farmers for failure

However, the black farming groups have reiterated their long-held belief that the current state-sponsored funding mechanisms are setting up new black farmers for failure. They will be demanding the scrapping of the current grant system and demanding an entirely new government farmer support system when they meet Mantashe.

Meanwhile, the challenge to the Communal Land Rights Act on which the North Gauteng High Court ruled on Friday, was launched by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) and the firm, Webber Wentzel, on behalf of four communities in the provinces of Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the North West.

The court?s ruling is likely to impact seriously on government plans to reform the system of land tenure for some 21 million people currently living on 16 million hectares of communal land, most of it located in former homelands.

It is also likely to impact negatively on the government?s key Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP), launched by President Jacob Zuma in August. In terms of the CRDP, the implementation of the Communal Land Rights Act was to facilitate economic growth in communal areas by converting communally held land into freehold tenure. Now all of this could be on hold, further exacerbating frustrations in rural areas and in the land reform sphere.

Pressures have been building up

Pressures have been building up in this sector for a long time alongside the known and rising pressures around land reform, and will warrant innovative and urgent attention from the government.

The tensions are also being exacerbated by the recession and global economic situation, high operating costs, as well as climatic and weather impacts and the anticipated rocketing energy costs in the face of oil peak.

The international Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that food production will be required to double by 2050 in order to keep up with increasing demand. At a meeting of the G8, representing the world?s largest economies, held during July in Italy, a statement declared that there is urgent need for decisive action to free mankind from hunger and singled out agriculture for massive attention and support.

Across the globe, there is a shift towards more aid and investment in agriculture in attempts to boost food security and effect rural development. It is against this background that President Zuma's CRDP should be judged.