Small-scale farmers battle to access government aid fund
Suspicions have been raised that the money in the Covid-19 agricultural disaster support fund is meant for a small number of politically connected people
THE Southern African Agri Initiative (SAAI) is currently exploring legal options to assist small-scale farmers remove barriers being experienced in accessing the government’s aid packages.
Although the Department of Agriculture and Land Reform’s R1.2-billion aid package for small-scale farmers was widely welcomed, potential beneficiaries are struggling to access the application process.
According to SAAI this has raised the suspicion that the money in the Covid-19 agricultural disaster support fund (CADS Fund) is meant for a small number of politically connected people who have access to senior officials in the department, rather than being a broad-based empowerment mechanism to keep needy small-scale farmers producing throughout the challenging lockdown measures.
SAAI, a network of family farmers that specialises in digital solutions to agricultural development, has received numerous complaints from small-scale farmers across the country who believe the system is geared to keep them out.
Chairperson of the SAAI Board of Directors, Dr Theo de Jager, says many small-scale farmers do not have access to printers to obtain a hard copy of the prescribed forms, while service providers in rural towns are closed during the lockdown.
But even those farmers who could make a plan to get a form printed and completed, cannot get the application filed as the department’s offices are located far away or are closed.
Police at roadblocks are also not informed about the need for small-scale farmers to physically file these forms at the department’s offices and they do not deem it to be an essential service.
De Jager says at the request of its members, SAAI has developed a digital form with all the functionalities the department needs to process, check and monitor the application process, and presented it to national and provincial officials.
To date, no official in the department can approve the use of the digital forms and, in the face of the looming deadline of 22 April, there seems to be no urgency about it.
‘They don’t really want us to apply,’ said a beneficiary of the land redistribution programme in Hoedspruit, ‘because they already have other plans for that money.’
He says in agriculture, the money seldom drips through to the farmers at grassroots level.
‘Some of us have been waiting since 2012 for our post-settlement grants.’
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