hands of government and previously disadvantaged individuals (PDIs), representing 25 million hectares. To put it into further context, using the potential and the economic value of the land, this amounts to 29.1% of total agricultural land value in South Africa and 46.5% of the total potential of South agricultural land. Africa’s PDI: Previously Disadvantaged Individual The reason that land now held by black emerging farmers represents so much of South agronomically high potential land, is because of high black land ownership in eastern Africa’s provinces like KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape as well as Limpopo. Furthermore, the audit found that twice as many black emerging farmers had obtained their land through private purchases (4.3 million ha) than beneficiaries of the land government’s reform programme (2.2 million ha), reinforcing their view that the private sector can speed up the efficiency of land transfer processes. black farmers are those that have bought their “The most successful own land,” says Christo van der Rheede, deputy executive director. farmers in the “For instance Coloured fruit Western Cape. A big part of their success is due to their affiliation with Hortgro.” However, emerging farmers have a universal concern: lack of secure tenure and lack of access to capital for farming operations and growth. A major stumbling block is that farmers who are based in private land ownership is traditionally communal (‘tribal’) lands where forbidden, are therefore disqualified from accessing commercial credit. propose a new strategy for sustainable agrarian reform. A lack of access to capital is “We the single biggest inhibitor to emerging farmers at the Omri van Zyl says. moment,” “We suggest subsidisation of interest rates from government. Through commercial funding mechanisms we can leverage more from government. We believe we can transfer property at double or quadruple the rate that it is done currently.”
hands of government and previously disadvantaged individuals (PDIs), representing 25 million hectares. To put it into further context, using the potential and the economic value of the land, this amounts to 29.1% of total agricultural land value in South Africa and 46.5% of the total potential of South Africa’s agricultural land. PDI: Previously Disadvantaged Individual The reason that land now held by black emerging farmers represents so much of South Africa’s agronomically high potential land, is because of high black land ownership in eastern provinces like KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape as well as Limpopo. Furthermore, the audit found that twice as many black emerging farmers had obtained their land through private purchases (4.3 million ha) than beneficiaries of the government’s land reform programme (2.2 million ha), reinforcing their view that the private sector can speed up the efficiency of land transfer processes. “The most successful black farmers are those that have bought their own land,” says Christo van der Rheede, deputy executive director. “For instance Coloured fruit farmers in the Western Cape. A big part of their success is due to their affiliation with Hortgro.” However, emerging farmers have a universal concern: lack of secure tenure and lack of access to capital for farming operations and growth. A major stumbling block is that farmers who are based in traditionally communal (‘tribal’) lands where private land ownership is forbidden, are therefore disqualified from accessing commercial credit. “We propose a new strategy for sustainable agrarian reform. A lack of access to capital is the single biggest inhibitor to emerging farmers at the moment,” Omri van Zyl says. “We suggest subsidisation of interest rates from government. Through commercial funding mechanisms we can leverage more from government. We believe we can transfer property at double or quadruple the rate that it is done currently.”
FRESH%20PLAZA%20-%20PDI%20land%20ownership%20audit%20-%201%20Nov%202017.docx