Government must make policy on land clear

Farmers sometimes seem like eternal optimists. Their hope that “next year will be better” doesn’t prove their starry-eyed naivety … it is a realistic indication of their character: they frequently have no option but to continue what they’re doing.

Farmers will tell you that their business is held hostage to many things outside their control, like government policy, commodity prices, fuel and other input prices.

At the moment, South Africa is in a state of flux and farmers could be forgiven for wanting to either pack it in or sit tight and wait for major issues to resolve themselves.

Expropriation of land without compensation – which has been proclaimed official government policy by the ANC – is the major worrying factor for any landowner in the country.

There have been claims in some quarters that uncertainty over the land question – and the ANC has given no clear indication of how it will be resolved, nor of possible time frames – has led to a crisis of confidence among farmers.

This negative sentiment has – so the story goes – meant less land is being planted.

However, leading and respected agricultural economist Wandile Sihlobo – who is known for his statistics-based analyses of the sector – has argued that it is “clearly inaccurate” to say farmers have stopped planting because of land grab fears.

In his blog, he cited various positive figures – including a marked increase in sales of tractors as well as more land being planted to winter crops – as indicators that for farmers, it is “business as usual”.

That is comforting because the reality is that agriculture is one of the most important parts of our economy. Without it, we’d starve, or we’d go broke importing food.

But the government still needs to let us all know what is going to happen with the land.

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