Corporate Social Review Magazine 1st Quarter 2012 | Page 33

AGRICULTURE
AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY
The value of mentorship in growing SA’s
black commercial farmer base

Johannesburg, 5 April 2012 – South Africa is a country
with limited availability of arable land for agriculture and
a relatively restricted commercial farmer base. In meeting
the needs of land reform and transformation of the agricultural industry, black farmers need to be developed in areas
where there is clear commercial promise for local and export markets.

S

outh Africa’s commercial farmer base has decreased from 65 000 to 37 000 during the past
14 years and land under production by over 4
million hectares to around 2.7 million hectares. JSElisted agricultural services and food business,AFGRI,
believes that productive land should be fully utilised
and should produce according to its capacity, which
puts the spotlight on developing black farmers.
“The focus of the agricultural industry and government
should not be to reduce the commercial farmer base
further, but to augment it with the addition of black
farmers,” says AFGRI General Manager Sustainability, Peter Harris.“In order to operate successfully, we
must actively contribute towards South Africa’s development agenda.”
AFGRI’s drive to support developing black farmers
originated through the Group’s efforts to improve
its B-BBEE Contributor level through the Enterprise

Development element of the generic
scorecard. This mandate has
evolved greatly over the past
3 years.
“By empowering black
farmers to become independent and commercially
successful, we contribute
positively to transformation of the agricultural
industry, but are also diversifying our local customer base,” says Harris.
For AFGRI, whose main operations are centred on
the provinces of Mpumalanga, the Free State and
Gauteng, every situation presents different challenges – from the historic situation to the manner in which
government programmes are implemented.
At the black owned KOTLA Farming Enterprises in
Brits in the North West province, AFGRI improved the
operation’s long term prospects by providing a mortgage loan for the farm’s recapitalisation and a seasonal input facility for the summer crop, after a Prime
+ 5% bank loan proved unsustainable for the farmer to manage on top of trying to grow the business.
AFGRI advanced funds on a basis somewhat below
accepted commercial terms, entered into a development agreement with the owner and funded a mentorship support programme provided by Edge Growth.
Its own relationship manager, Goosen Lombard, supervises the implementation of the business plan and
mentorship programme in order to ensure the farm’s

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CORPORATE SOCIAL REVIEW