The 2012/13 season was tough for cane growers. However, with favourable conditions, the prospect of an improved season ahead is realistic. The promises of a recovery in the cane crop to close to average levels, brought about by good early rain and growing conditions, were unfortunately not realised to their fullest expectation. It was, ironically, the extreme wet conditions that came about from the above average rainfall in the last months of 2012 that curtailed growers in many of the cane-growing regions from harvesting their full crop for delivery to the mills. As such, a significant tonage of cane was carried over into the 2013/14 season. The wet end of season conditions also had a negative impact on overall cane quality for the season, but the improvement in quality over the previous year was an encouraging aspect of the crop.
In recent years the impact of international events has been felt by the South African agricultural sector. Some of these have been positive in their influences on growers, while other events have been detrimental. During 2012/13, activities in the local socio-political environment have had a significant impact on the country’s businesses. The series of labour
and social unrests in the mining, industrial and agricultural sectors ha provided a potential new canvas for the country’s business and labour communities to work on in the forging of partnerships for economic growth and job creation. Strong leadership in this regard is essential to ensure that the negative messages that circulate are put into context and ignored, so that we can build on the strengths of what has been achieved over the past decade to take the various processes forward. Cane growers remains fully committed to the vision of a united and prosperous agricultural sector that positively reflects the diversity of our communities.
The continued upward trend in farm input costs presents further challenges to growers. The ability to retain and create jobs in the cane growing businesses will be influenced by the comparative cost of labour and mechanisation.
Cane growing is a labour intensive business and provides employment for significant numbers in the rural areas. This ties in closely with government’s rural development plans and there are many synergies that can be achieved in this regard given an appropriate policy environment.
Risk mitigation
Cane growers are in the process of putting various risk-mitigation strategies in place which will ensure that the organisation is in a position to meet the challenges of the future. Cane growers was providing the right communication messages to the right people through the right channels. During the course of the season, many initiatives were undertaken by them, including the implementation of an updated corporate visual identity and the introduction of a communication tool D6 Communicator, which pushes real time information on a regular basis from cane growers to growers. Grower Days are an important part of their education drive in informing small-scale growers on the activities of the organisation.
Human resources
Human capital affects an organisation’s success and cane growers is committed to providing effective delivery with effective staffing, which is a fundamental role of Human Resources.
During 2012/13 progress was achieved in the areas of recruitment, performance management and coaching skills. Thirteen appointments were made, four of which were the promotion of existing staff into higher level positions.
Finance
The estimates of expenditure for 2012/13 were approved at a levy requirement of R32 975 505.
Crop production
The 2012/13 South African cane crop increased significantly from the previous two seasons. However, a prolonged transport strike, as well as good rains towards the end of the crushing season, impacted on the ability to crush cane resulting in a substantial tonnage being carried over into the 2013/14 season. The total cane crushed in the 2012/13 season amounted to 17 278 020 tons representing an increase of 2,84% over the 2011/12 crop. Total saleable
sugar production was 1 951 515 tons, an increase of 7.08% season-on-season. Cane quality improved to 12,17% from an average of 11,68% in the 2011/12 season.
Leadership training of community groups
Over the past five years some 120 co-operatives have been established in the sugar industry. This new form of enterprise presented management challenges for small-scale growers. In recognition of these challenges, cane growers provides support to boards that manage cooperatives on behalf of a group of small-scale growers. In 2013, cane growers facilitated a governance workshop for the Liguguletfu Co-operative Limited, one of the small-scale grower cooperatives based in Mpumalanga and with substantial investment in a regional agricultural and development finance institution. The training provided an understanding of what is required from a cooperative board member.
Mpumalanga
The 2012/13 production results fell from the record levels achieved during the 2011/12 season. The average yields were 94.9 tons/hectare in Komatipoort and 93,8 tons/hectare in the Malalane region. Unfortunately small-scale grower yields declined dramatically from the 2011/12 season to 54,1 and 59,8 tons/hectare respectively. This is considered well below the break-even point in an irrigated region and is an issue of concern.
The 2012/13 crushing season was an eventful one with a good start. Relatively dry early season weather combined with excellent milling performance resulted in both mills running ahead of the crush budget. Growers concerned with cutting into young cane requested that the mills slow the crush rate in order to maintain quality.
Unfortunately the transport strikes in the road freight industry resulted in the stopping of both mills for the duration of the strike. While the strike was largely uneventful, sporadic incidents of violence flared up causing significant concern within the growing community.
The result of this industrial action was felt throughout the rest of the season. Growers were under pressure to ensure that the whole crop was delivered and the mill closing dates were shifted out by more than a month as a result.
Mpumalanga Cane Growers’ Association (MpCGA) continued to develop two interesting projects during the course of the season – providing a mentorship service to Langeloop Phase II (LLPII) and investigating opportunities to add value to growers’ biomass. It is a project which had been synonymous with smut disease and land bank debt since the Lowveld pest, disease and variety control committee issued plough out orders to all LLPII growers during the 2007/08 season.
MpCGA was appointed as mentor to the LLPII in order to secure R2,9 million-grant funding. It has been used to replant the project and address some of the significant drainage problems. The growers have formed a co-operative and appointed a manager to drive the production at LLPII. During the 2012/13 season the project faced a number of challenges associated with changing the mode of doing business from small-scale agriculture to a large-scale farming enterprise and now go into the 2013/14 season with 150 hectares under cane. This project continues to provide a case study for co-operative farming. During 2011/12, MpCGA was awarded 100 000 by the European Union towards its “Utilising a Biomass-to-energy solution as an instrument to stimulate economic development, community upliftment and wealth creation in the Nkomazi District of Mpumalanga” project. This project which is able to compensate growers for their biomass as well as reward investors for their capital injection, was concluded in March 2013. The next step in turning this concept into reality is sourcing funds to complete a bankable feasibility study and establish a pilot plant.
