A car accident made this graphic designer more grounded, and take to farming, tending to vegetables on a piece of land far from Johannesburg. 



About 250kms from the sanitized suburbs of Sandton in South
Africa’s Gauteng province is Randfontein, a rugged gold mining city in the West
Rand, where we meet 31-year-old Katlego Pitse on his farm where he is currently
producing rows of crisp green lettuce. 



A few years ago, the Soweto-born farmer was far from any
piece of earth, and closer to a computer desktop, earning a living as a graphic
designer. 



The only definition he gave himself was as a
‘creative’.&nbsp; 



“Straight after high school, I studied graphic design from
2008 until 2012. From there on, I pursued a career in commercial arts.
Advertising is the number one industry that absorbs creatives,” says Pitse of
his ‘other job’.



He worked for various companies in Johannesburg and his
career was well on to greener pastures as he enjoyed a hefty salary with annual
increments and a lavish lifestyle, until an unfortunate incident threw him out
of gear. Pitse was involved in a road accident in 2015 and the snazzy, pricey
car he had been spending so much on, had to be written off. The accident was a
facilitator, as he was faced with some life-defining choices, and the prospect
of a new direction, one that made him more grounded.



“I had to start over. This was the kind of catalyst that
gave me a bit of a wakeup call; going forward, [I realized] if I was to spend
money, it had to be on valuable assets that are going to yield returns that can
be passed on,” he says.



He left a full-time job to freelance at a night club; this
is where he was exposed to the day-to-day operations of a business. It helped
him take to entrepreneurship, pursuing agriculture full-time; which had been a
burning desire since his days as an art student thumbing through agriculture
magazines. 



“I was constantly doing research. It was something I knew I
wanted to do but I wasn’t sure when I was going to be able to pursue it fully
because you need an actual career,” he says.



“There was an article I read about a farmer based in
Winterveld. I called to ask if I could visit to see his operation in 2015. Just
that farm visit was an inspiration to start my business.”



Pitse saved up enough money to buy a vacant two-and-half
hectare plot in Randfontein for R200,000 ($13,400). It took him three years to
start production, during which time he pursued his graphic design career on the
side. 



In 2019, the first year of production, Pitse focused on
cucumbers – his pet passion – and did cycles of long English cucumbers. Due to
the high costs, Pitse had to re-evaluate and decided to move to a less
cumbersome crop, lettuce.



Pitse is currently employing two family members and still
does the odd graphic design job to supplement his income. 



Surely, a small-scale farmer with big graphic dreams of the
future.

Katlego 485

Soil Toil: How A Car Accident Made This Graphic Designer More Grounded

Africa has 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, and has the potential to become an agricultural hub by applying agri-tech and futurist thinking. Lessons from a Canadian food economy.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



“Our food system is broken.” And Africa is no exception.“Just consider that 30 percent of all food produced doesn’t make it to the plate. Much of it ends up in landfills where it creates methane, a greenhouse gas.”



These were the words by Barbara Swartzentruber, the Executive Director of Strategy, Innovation and Intergovernmental Relations at the City of Guelph, west of downtown Toronto in Canada, to a range of journalists in a bid to encourage foreign direct investment for the city’s visionary smart city plan.



According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, “every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tonnes) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes)”. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">To address these challenges, the entire design and food production system needs to be rethought and reimagined. </blockquote>



Thought needs to be given to what we put on our plates, to how we produce it and to how we dispose of it etc., reckons Swartzentruber.



Failure to do so will have dire consequences for the nine billion people expected to live on this planet by 2050, she adds. In response, Guelph-Wellington, the city in Canada I am visiting, which has a long history of agricultural excellence, is re-imagining its food system. 



Many of the discoveries and solutions it is applying could be adopted and repurposed in Africa, which has 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, and the potential to become a burgeoning agricultural hub of the future.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Circular food economies</h5>



Guelph-Wellington has started work to be among the world’s first circular food economies by 2025. Its ambitious plan will see a system where everyone has access to nutritious food, nothing is wasted and the impact on its own environment is minimal, reveals Swartzentruber.



 It is proposing a 50x50x50 model, in which access to affordable, nutritious food is increased by 50%, 50 new circular businesses and collaboration opportunities are created and economic revenues are increased by 50% by reducing and recognizing food waste,she adds. 



To achieve this, food experts, academics, social innovators, farmers, community partners and entrepreneurs will collaborate to tackle Guelph-Wellington’s most complex food challenges using big data and the latest technologies. 



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Biomaterials</h5>



One of these academics is Professor Amar Mohanty, Director of the Bioproducts Discovery and Development Centre (BDDC) and Premier’s Research Chair in Biomaterials &amp; Transportation at the University of Guelph. Mohanty, who comes from India, is working with plant biologists,chemists and engineers to reuse waste, investigate and commercialize biomaterial. His passion stems from a desire to save the environment, the ebullient scientist tells FORBES AFRICA. 



His zeal to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases,
which he calls ‘slow poison’, is already bearing fruit. 



Together with Toronto-based coffee roaster Club Coffee, the BDDC created the world’s first fully-compostable coffee pods, which became available in Canada in 2016. 



To address the scourge plastic straws are having on rivers and oceans, Mohanty says his department is currently testing a 100% compostable straw made with biodegradable plastics. 



The BDDC is also working with the likes of Volkswagen, Ford and Tesla to turn plant materials such as wheat, soy and corn into alternatives to petroleum-based sources for car parts. In December, together with one of the car manufacturers, it is launching these products. 



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Controlled environment systems</h5>



A few blocks away on the same campus, Professor Mike Dixon of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility (CESRF) and his team are hard at work creating controlled environment plant production. 



The technology will be used to feed people living in harsh environments, astronauts traveling to Mars, to growing plants on the moon, to improving the medicinal components of plants such as cannabis, to developing new cancer therapies, says Dixon.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="826" height="618" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Mike.png" alt="" class="wp-image-38297" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Mike.png 826w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Mike-300x224.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Mike-600x449.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Mike-768x575.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 826px) 100vw, 826px" /><figcaption> Mike Dixon of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility. Picture: Supplied</figcaption></figure>



With confidence, Dixon reckons, provided he gets funding,that he will send the first plants to the moon in 2019. True to his Scottish blood and love for single malt whiskey, the plants will be barley.



The laboratory where Dixon and his team of researchers work uses new attributes of light-emitting diode (LED) lights to promote production of various plant commodities. For example, says Dixon, “researchers have learned that exposing lettuce to different LED light changes metabolic compounds that influence the color and taste of lettuce and even the medicinal properties of other plants”.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">DNA barcoding</h5>



Professor Paul Hebert from the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Guelph was the first scientist to propose that a short DNA sequence be used to identify species. According to the university, he called the system ‘DNA barcoding’, analogous to how retail products are tagged to allow for quick identification.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“With DNA barcoding, scientists may identify species within hours – and, ultimately, minutes – using all life stages and even fragments of organisms.”</blockquote>



The technology can also be used to eliminate food fraud and ensure that you get what you order and pay for at shops and restaurants. 



On its journey to becoming the food basket of the world, Africa has a treasure trove of new ideas to use. The future is in her hands.&nbsp;&nbsp;

barley

Is This Technology the Answer to World Hunger?

Zimbabwe urgently needs a new system of land administration to harness development in the agricultural sector. The country’s land use and ownership have been significantly reconfigured by the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2011.583642" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fast-track land reform programme</a> undertaken during Robert Mugabe’s rule.
Today, <a href="http://www.zimbabweland.net/Books.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">following the land reform</a> of the 2000s, Zimbabwe has an agrarian structure that’s made up of small, medium and large farms, all under different forms of land ownership. A landscape that used to be dominated by 4,500 large-scale commercial farmers is now populated by about 145,000 smallholder households, occupying 4.1 million hectares, and around 23,000 medium-scale farmers on 3.5 million hectares.
Knowing exactly who has land and where is difficult. Illegal multiple allocations combine with unclear boundary demarcations and an incomplete recording system. Many new land owners don’t have formal documentation and lack leases or permits confirming ownership. There is a great deal of uncertainty given the often haphazard, sometimes corrupt, approach to land reallocation that took place under the land reform programme.
Given that the landscape is very different to what went before, a new system of land administration is urgently needed.
<h2>Promise of change</h2>
In his <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201711250043.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inaugural speech</a>, Zimbabwe’s new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, declared that land reform was both necessary and irreversible, and acknowledged some big, outstanding challenges.
A new land administration system for the post-land reform era is long overdue. <a href="https://theconversation.com/settling-the-land-compensation-issue-is-vital-for-zimbabwes-economy-89384" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Paying compensation to former owners</a> is a vital first step. This has to be combined with a comprehensive land <a href="https://zimbabweland.wordpress.com/2017/03/13/land-audits-a-tricky-technical-and-political-challenge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">audit</a> to weed out those failing to produce, or those illegally holding more than one plot, alongside allocating leases and permits to those in land reform areas, and attracting investment into agriculture as the mainstay of an ailing economy.
Both compensation and audit processes will inevitably throw up <a href="https://zimbabweland.wordpress.com/2017/06/19/land-dispute-resolution-in-zimbabwe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disputes</a>. A fair and transparent system for rapid resolution is required, including the establishment of an independent Land Tribunal. Alternative dispute resolution processes at a local level will hopefully avoid the dangers of the courts getting clogged with numerous cases.
An audit also has to be linked to land registration, and an effective, but low-cost, land information management system. Following registration, legal recognition and formal documentation of land ownership is essential, as <a href="https://zimbabweland.wordpress.com/2017/07/03/beyond-the-freehold-title-obsession-generating-land-tenure-security/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">land tenure security</a> is vital for future investment.
<h2>Many forms of tenure</h2>
Some believe that the only solution is individual freehold titling, as land is otherwise seen as <a href="https://zimbabweland.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/dead-capital-de-sotos-fallacies-in-zimbabwe-3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“dead capital”</a>. But this is mistaken, as <a href="https://zimbabweland.wordpress.com/2017/07/03/beyond-the-freehold-title-obsession-generating-land-tenure-security/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">other forms of land tenure</a> can offer security, spurring investment, if the institutional, legal and political context is right.
As argued in 1994 by the Rukuni Commission, a major review of tenure policy in Zimbabwe, a <a href="http://www.swradioafrica.com/Documents/Sokwanele%20Why%20Zim%20needs%20to%20maintain%20a%20multi-form%20land%20tenure%20system.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">multi-form tenure</a> arrangement makes most sense. In some settings, communal tenure regimes are best, allowing flexibility and broad access. In others, a simple permit system can allow registration. In others, a leasehold arrangement can offer security and collateral, while regulations can offset land concentration and assure access for certain people.
Occasionally freehold title may be appropriate if a completely free market in land is required. However, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-title-deeds-arent-the-solution-to-south-africas-land-tenure-problem-82098" target="_blank" rel="noopener">titling schemes</a> are notoriously expensive to deliver, open up multiple disputes and are difficult to regulate to ensure more equitable ownership structures, including land ownership by women.
<h2>Financing is essential</h2>
To pay land taxes, mortgages or compensation payments, the land must be productive, and this requires finance. <a href="https://zimbabweland.wordpress.com/2017/07/10/getting-agriculture-moving-finance-and-credit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Finance for agriculture</a> has been missing in recent years.
Great efforts have been made to ensure that the <a href="http://www.cfuzim.org/%7Ecfuzimb/images/99yearleasepam.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">99-year lease</a> for medium-scale commercial farm land (known as A2) is bankable, and cannot be withdrawn arbitrarily. It seems that, at last, the <a href="http://source.co.zw/2017/12/banks-say-agreement-in-place-to-accept-99-year-leases-as-collateral/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zimbabwe Banking Association</a> is in agreement. This will allow the release of private bank finance, as land can be used as collateral.
For those without land leases, other types of collateral can also be used, including assets such as livestock, vehicles or buildings. Alternative sources of farm finance include commercial crop contracting, partnerships and joint ventures or government backed loans.
All these financing models have shown some promise in Zimbabwe in recent years, with <a href="https://zimbabweland.wordpress.com/2017/05/01/tobacco-and-contract-farming-in-zimbabwe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crop contracting</a> at the core of the smallholder tobacco production success story. Contracting arrangements are also extending to <a href="https://zimbabweland.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/a-hot-commercial-success-growing-chili-in-the-eastern-highlands/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">other crops</a>. Joint ventures, including partnerships with <a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-03/16/c_136134217.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinese investors</a> and <a href="https://frontera.net/news/africa/what-mnangagwa-needs-to-deliver-inauguration-promise-to-resurrect-zimbabwes-economy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">former commercial farmers</a>, have also been emerging in a number of under-capitalised medium-scale farms.
“Command agriculture” &#8211; a public-private input supply scheme &#8211; has been a flagship project led by the new president and the military. It has helped to revitalise maize and wheat production, especially on larger farms with irrigation infrastructure. Questions are however raised about <a href="https://zimbabweland.wordpress.com/2017/09/25/command-agriculture-and-the-politics-of-subsidies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">longer-term sustainability</a> of such subsidised financing.​
<h2>Sustainability is key</h2>
Getting a new land administration system working is a huge task. <a href="https://zimbabweland.wordpress.com/2017/07/17/a-new-land-administration-system-for-zimbabwe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">All the elements have to work together</a> – from audit to valuation to compensation to dispute resolution to issuing land tenure documentation to financing – and back again.
And this is not just a one-off task to resolve the current mess. Land disputes will continue, audits will need to be repeated, and new leases and permits and sources of finance secured. For this reason any new system must be sustainable, both administratively and financially, and not reliant on external donor finance. Taxes, rents and compensation repayments need to be paid back into a land fund, which in turn supports the system for the long-term.
Testing this all out at a district level before rapidly rolling it out across the country is an urgent task for Zimbabwe’s new <a href="http://www.herald.co.zw/president-appoints-state-land-commission/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Land Commission</a>. Elaborating a new land administration system is long overdue. Such a system will help the country get over the post-land reform impasse, resolving outstanding land issues and getting much-needed investment flowing into the agriculture sector.
Only with this working well – as countries in <a href="https://zimbabweland.wordpress.com/2017/11/27/the-path-to-prosperity-starts-with-land-reform-says-the-economist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">East Asia</a> recognised when they undertook land reforms decades ago &#8211; will the full benefits of Zimbabwe’s land reform be realised. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ian-scoones-117123" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ian Scoones</a>, Professorial Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sussex-1218" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Sussex</a>
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Zimbabwe urgently needs a new land administration system

The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else.”
So writes one Nigeria’s most prolific sons, Chinua Achebe, in his somewhat defeatist essay, The Trouble with Nigeria. His sentiments are part of a chorus bemoaning the fact that for all of Nigeria’s wealth, be it in the form of highly educated professionals or resource endowment, there is not enough patriotism. We don’t have functioning roads but I have a jet. We don’t have national security but I can hire a private security outfit. And so the logic goes. It is this ‘every man for himself’ attitude that erodes nationhood. With a population of 175 million jostling for a toehold, it is not surprising that this notorious spirit beats strongly throughout Nigeria.
One young woman who embodies the contradictions of the green-and-white nation is 24-year-old Orode Ryan-Okpu. To some, her claim to fame is as the daughter of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, the governor of the Delta State.
Ryan-Okpu’s new claim to fame, however, is explained by two business cards. She offers me two – a pink one first and then a purple one. The latter is for Raum Oil Services, where Ryan-Okpu is the managing director. Raum Oil Services is the only upstream oil business in Nigeria owned by a woman. So far it has collected an impressive list of clients, including Nigerian lender Zenith Bank, pan-African energy group Oando, and oil and gas company Conoil.
Ryan-Okpu will be the first to tell you that she was born with the proverbial silver spoon in her mouth. She will also freely admit that she has used her networks to get to where she is today. But she is quick to point out that, “to whom much is given, much is expected”.
A young woman working in the male-dominated oil industry, Ryan-Okpu is regularly asked why she wastes her time on such a challenging venture when she could get more than enough money from her financially successful parents. Surely she should be able to live her life as a lady of leisure? Or, at worst, get a ‘nice’ job?
As she answers these questions, one word keeps making its way into the conversation – legacy. A popular preoccupation of many young people on the continent, it is perhaps best encapsulated by the phrase: “I’m on my hustle”. For Ryan-Okpu, however, it is not an obsession with hustlin’ to make money, but rather, hustlin’ to leave the world with something to remember her by.
The second business card is emblazoned with the words, ‘Pink Pearl Foundation’ (PPF). A pet cause for the Nigerian version of China’s famed silver-spooned princelings? If so, she certainly puts a lot of effort into it. Motivated by the loss of family members to cancer, as well as by her own brush with the illness, Ryan-Okpu founded PPF six years ago. A university student at the time, she decided something needed to be done to educate and empower Nigerian women in the fight against cancer.
The foundation carries out advocacy drives across Nigeria, increasing awareness about cancer symptoms and the importance of regular self-examination. PPF holds free breast and cervical cancer screenings at mobile clinics and has developed a series of educational talks aimed at women in rural areas.
In July, it opened the Rubies School of Women Empowerment, which offers cancer survivors short courses in business management, catering, tailoring and jewelry design. Ryan-Okpu has also just wrapped up a film called “Happy Funeral”, which raises awareness about cancer symptoms and the need for regular checkups.
PPF has reached out to nearly 4,000 women every year since 2007. The foundation believes that if you can save a woman, you can save a generation.
Inevitably, the question of why she chose not to follow in the footsteps of her political family crops up. When I probe her on her political ambitions Ryan-Okpu concedes that she is interested in pursuing the family tradition. Just give me time, she says, explaining that she wants to achieve much more before entering the political arena.
If Ryan-Okpu is an indication of the future of Achebe’s Nigeria, a new generation obsessed with what they leave behind, then the green-and-white nation may just be on the right track after all.

Hustlin’ for a Legacy

It was a long walk to farming for Marlin De-Jager, ending at a 3,000 hectare plot, near Aberdeen. In these parts, De-Jager’s background is as rare as the famous Karoo lamb. His persistence, as solid as the rocks on his land.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2201" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_0890-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
He was born and raised by a single parent after his father walked out. He skipped town while in high school after a brawl at a rugby game. He wound up struggling in the Western Cape province digging a train tunnel along the Hex River.
A few years later, he returned to Aberdeen and changed his fortunes by starting his own farming business; buying unwanted sheep with black wool from farmers and selling the mutton.
“When you slaughter something, it doesn’t matter what their hair looks like. When the skin is off it doesn’t matter. That’s how I started,” says De-Jager.
Next, he bought 21 small pieces of communal land and taught the community how to plant gardens.
Last year, after 20 years of saving, he bought his own farm for R4.2 million ($420,000).
“As an emerging farmer, I want to become a commercial farmer. For me, one day, it’s to see my son and his children also becoming commercial farmers,” he says.
One morning, De-Jager read about fracking in the newspapers.
“I was very interested to know how it works. For me, I don’t know how they are going to get it right. Water underground is like blood in the veins. To stop one vein affects the whole body,” he says.
Since then De-Jager has been talking to his community one-by-one.
“I’m only a drop in the ocean. I am trying to convince the colored community about my concerns with fracking. Our people are mostly small farmers. I sat and asked them about fracking. They said ‘we haven’t got land so why must we worry?’ That is their view. I don’t think they realize what will happen,” he says.
De-Jager fears many people don’t understand what fracking means and believes energy companies are taking advantage of this.
“They [fracking companies] don’t care about the land. They care about their pockets. You can see all the big companies. They are sitting there and making their money. Then when it’s finished, they pack up and leave and we must deal with the land,” he says.
The emerging farmer intends to fight fracking before it happens, he says. De-Jager doesn’t want to see the farm he spent so long saving for, destroyed, before his son takes over.

No Land For My Son

Land reform has been as controversial an issue in post-colonial Africa, as it has been emotive. Not surprising given the sheer scale of poverty and inequality that countries had to deal with once they attained freedom.
The last country to be liberated, South Africa, is finding itself in this unavoidable position- having to take land from mostly white farmers and giving it to large numbers of disadvantaged. In its attempt, South Africa is haunted by the chaos and misfortunes of neighbouring Zimbabwe.
This is not a policy unique to Africa, however. Colombia is working towards an accord on land reform. Some socialist movements in China, Mexico and Cuba, as well as democratic regimes in Chile, Puerto Rico and Venezuela have gone through it.
<div id="attachment_1745" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1745" class="size-medium wp-image-1745" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/John-du-Plessis-CEO-of-TSB-Sugar-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />ohn du Plessis, CEO of TSB Sugar</div>
The reason South Africa’s land reform process has become urgent is the 100 year anniversary of the Natives Land Act, on June 19. The act limited black land ownership to 7%, later increased to 13%. It restricted black people from buying or occupying land, except as employees.
Between 1994 and 2011, 6.8 million hectares (ha) were transferred to claimants. This land is allocated on a 99-year leasehold. The minister of rural development and land reform, Gugile Nkwinti, said that 4,813 farms had been transferred, between 1994 and January 2013 and that his department had spent R12.9 billion ($1.43 billion) on land reform.
Political pressure is growing to speed up South Africa’s tortoise-like land reform in the face of unrest among the poor.
The reasons the land restitution progress has dragged range from corruption to government inefficiency. The bigger question is whether allocation of this land means it will be put to work. The reality is that some claimants have opted to take cash instead of title deeds. South Africa’s department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries (DAFF) and the department of rural development and land reform (DRDLR) failed to respond to questions about these issues.
The DRDLR has spent R1.8 billion ($200 million) on the redistribution and recapitalization programs and has set aside R3.2 billion ($355 million) for land reform.
This has been carried out under South Africa’s Restitution Land Rights Act of 1994, which was amended to redefine the ‘restoration of a right in land’ as ‘the return of a right in land or a portion of land dispossessed after June 19, 1913 as a result of past racially discriminatory laws or practices’.
The government is hoping to finalize the thousands of outstanding claims in the next year. The process has taken 18 years. To complicate matters further, the laws are being rewritten, which is likely to cause even more uncertainty.
The willing-buyer, willing-seller model was scrapped and in November President Jacob Zuma created a stir when he proposed that land be bought from white farmers at “just and equitable” prices. He has also suggested a land policy barring foreigners from owning land in South Africa, in favor of long-term leasing. The policy has yet to be finalized and passed, along with the auditing of privately-owned land.
A good case study of the land reform initiative is the sugar industry in Mpumalanga, in northern South Africa. The country is the world’s eleventh largest sugar producer. According to the DAFF’s February 2013 newsletter, Mpumalanga contributed almost a quarter of the national sugar production, during the 2010/2011 season. The South African sugar sector made around R8.2 billion ($910 million), the bulk of which goes to the local market. The growers get around 64% and the millers get more than 35% of the industry’s divisible proceeds.
In 1998, TSB Sugar began work with the government on land reform. TSB gave up around 90% of its land, which the company is currently in joint ventures (JVs)—with communities—over. The land used to be owned by the company, to secure its cane supply.
The company’s CEO, John du Plessis, has been in the sugar industry since he left university. He says the industry has been through tough times due to drought, land reform initiatives and pressures on margins. Du Plessis feels that land reform initiatives caused feelings of uncertainty, leading to lost efficiency in the milling sector and lost production in the agricultural sector. Pressure on margins has been caused by competition from imports, inflation and rising input costs, mainly due to electricity and fuel increases.
Du Plessis says that the biggest problem with the transference of land was high expectations by those who receive it.
“There is a huge expectation that ownership and management can be taken over, sooner rather than later, and we know that’s not a reality,” he says.
Land reform has definitely caught on in the sugar industry. Sixty seven percent of the 49,598ha in the Nkomazi cane area, in Mpumalanga, is owned by beneficiaries and 88% of this percentage is functional.
TSB and its JVs contributed 34% of the cane for the Nkomazi area during the 2012 season. The area has exceeded the national ownership target, while productivity on some of the land has increased slightly, largely due to the fact that some farms were run down. Small growers are a concern. These growers operate as sub-economic units, some producing only 35 tons per hectare against an industry norm of 100 tons per hectare. They are trying to solve the issue by forming co-operatives but this is often hindered by squabbles among owners.
“Sometimes it’s social issues that are undermining the sustainability of land reform and not production,” says Dave Thomson, the manager of land reform at TSB.
The global reality is that there are fewer farmers farming larger areas. The National Development Agency and the South African Sugar Association (SASA) raised R2.8 billion ($310.5 million) last year to improve the competiveness of small-scale sugar cane farmers.
One of the new cane farmers on the block in Mpumalanga is Petros Silinda, who used to teach agricultural science and biology in the province. He held numerous positions including commercial manager, company director and chairman of a trust. His three children are also learning the business.
Silinda believes that new farmers need to work with the old.
“There’s no chop and change in farming,” he says.
Each community in the area formed a trust in 2004, TSB has no say over how the trust manages its finances. The trust in charge of Silinda’s community’s interests has a 22-year deal with TSB, which was signed in 2008. The first 11 years are a 50-50 partnership and the next 11 will be in a 60-40 split between the trust and the company respectively. The trust represents around 1,464 households.
New political party leader, Mamphela Rampele, who was speaking at the opening of the Land Divided Conference 2013, said that there needs to be a balance between the need to redistribute land and retain existing commercial farmers.
At the sugar fields of Mpumalanga, Thompson says that trying to tinker with land prices isn’t going to speed up land reform. He thinks that government needs to look at the process and red tape. Land waiting to be transferred is in the hands of the government but who is there to manage the farms and ensure that there isn’t a dip in production before the beneficiaries receive it.
In Mpumalanga, they tell the story of how the owner of the 576ha Outeniqua farm sent government an offer to purchase the farm but the officials were slow. The farm fell into ruin as the farmer walked away. It was looted and vandalized and by the time the government made its R13 million ($1.4 million) purchase and transferred it to Silinda’s community, it was nothing but fallow land.
When Zimbabwe pushed through the Land Acquisition Act in 1992, the government was entitled to designate mainly-white commercial farms for resettlement.
Little happened until 2000, when the ruling party lost a referendum over a new constitution, that would have absolved the government of paying compensation. Bands of war veterans took the land by force, effectively paralyzing the industry. Professor Sam Moyo, from the African Institute for Agrarian Studies, feels that the downfall of the sector was due to the three droughts that occurred between 2002 and 2008, along with the economic meltdown.
The other issue is that when experienced commercial farmers leave, they take their skills with them. This was the case in Zimbabwe.
SASA is trying to make sure that doesn’t happen to its industry. What some fail to see is that having worked the land for generations is very different from being in charge of a business. If the sugar industry can embrace an adapt-or-die mentality, then there may be hope for the rest of the country. The road is long and the squabbles plenty.
Silinda’s parting words speak volumes.
“The moment you start fighting, over nothing, this business is going to perish and when it perishes, it perishes with us.”

Tag: Land

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