Senwes Scenario April / May 2017 | Page 34

•••• NEW S Mike Mlengana: Still a devoted director-general to SA farmers IF YOU ASKED THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, MIKE MLENGANA WHAT HE IS, A DIRECTOR-GENERAL OR INDEED A DEVOTED SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE, HIS ANSWER WOULD DEFI- NITELY BE THE LATTER. M ike sent out a very clear message to a packed Fanie Ferreira hall during the 2017 Grain SA conference held at Nampo Park in March, when he addressed about 500 attendees, many of whom form the heartbeat of South African agriculture. In his speech Mike highlighted three main areas of concern, namely unity, transformation and the contribution of the sector towards economic growth. UNITY He is very adamant that “agricul- ture must first of all be inclusive. We can’t move forward at the expense of others anymore.” He then focused on one of the reasons for failure: “We appointed people on the basis of their political alli- ance. And the consequence was devastating chaos. This lack of unity led to that and many other disasters.” What further accentu- ated the problem was the “lack of integration in agriculture which 32 allowed external forces to create uncertainty about policies and growth.” TRANSFORMATION “Transformation is a must,” he said slowly after appealing to farmers to integrate one small- holder farmer into their business- es. Mike then quickly disposed of the matter of land ownership: “I know you are uncertain about the land reform issue,” laying their fears to rest by saying: “You do not need to be afraid, we’ve got a Constitution.” As a fellow farmer he is aware that farmers are good people. Transformation also means that every farmer must “help to surface good things”, thus dispelling “the perception that people in agricul- ture are inhumane.” CONTRIBUTION TO ECONOMY The belief is that agriculture contributes a mere 0.2% to the GDP. Mike’s answer to that is a clear: “We are not!” He said that agriculture created the whole value chain, but the challenge now is to “find a way to create a value chain that allows agriculture to stand tall in this country.” Agriculture needs to contribute on another level. He informed farmers that negotiations are currently underway with China, India and others so that farmers “can plant for a market they know exists.” Gone are the days that you rest in wintertime - the face of agriculture is changing rapidly. His focus is to change the enterprise - “So I’m going to force a partnership instead of recapi- APRIL/MAY 2017 • SENWES Scenario talisation.” The focus must be on productivity. Coupled with this focus is Vision 2030, which has a goal of creating 1 million jobs by con