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 31 CORPORATE SOCIAL REVIEW