11 / 23
ႃႃ
CHAPTER 8
LAND POSSESSION, CROPS PLANTED AND
GRAIN SA OFFICES PER PROVINCE
to demonstrate that best practices and improved yields are achievable. There is
enormous value in seeing and believing and in some places change in farming
methods has swept across a region like wildfire as one farmer passed the message
on to his neighbour.
The ethos behind Grain SA’s programme says:
• Farmers should be empowered to farm for themselves (not farmed for
by contractors).
• Where at all possible, farmers should own their own equipment and not rely
on the activities of other service providers.
• Farmers with farms of all sizes can be assisted to use the land that is available
to them using the most modern methods of crop production.
• The measure of success is the sustainable production of profitable crops
on every hectare (and not the total number of hectares planted, or the total
number of tons harvested).
In order to achieve these goals funding has been sourced to extend the
programme’s footprint over time by establishing a regional presence.
THE FOOTPRINT OF GRAIN SA IN THE COUNTRY:
REGIONAL OFFICES
From humble beginnings in Zeerust the programme has steadily increased its
footprint into more of the key grain producing regions. Regional offices manned
by a Development Co-ordinator, who is conversant in the indigenous language of
that region, and an administrative assistant, have been opened. At present offices
can be found in Lichtenburg and Taung in the North West, Ladybrand in the Free
State, Nelspruit (Mbombela) in Mpumalanga, Louwsburg and Dundee in KwaZulu-
Natal which also service parts of Mpumalanga, Kokstad and Mthatha in the Eastern
Cape, and Paarl in the Western Cape.
There are a total of nine offices including the co-ordinating office in Bloemfontein.
These offices have all been strategically placed to service a wide area where grains
can be produced profitably and where developing farmers have access to land.
Province
Office
Crops planted
Land tenure
North West
Lichtenburg Maize, soybeans,
sunflowers
All types
Taung
Irrigation maize, wheat,
barley, cotton, ground-
nuts, lucerne, potatoes
Mostly state land in the
Taung irrigation scheme
Free State
Ladybrand Maize, soybeans,
sunflowers, ground-
nuts, dry beans
All types (very little
communal land)
Eastern Cape Mthatha
Maize, dry beans
Mostly communal land
Maclear
Maize, dry beans
Mostly communal
land – some PLAS
Kokstad Maize, dry beans
Mostly communal
land – some PLAS
KwaZulu-Natal Dundee
Maize, dry beans
Mostly communal
land – some PLAS
Mpumalanga Louwsburg Maize, dry beans
Mostly communal land
Nelspruit
Maize, dry beans,
groundnuts
Mostly communal land
Western Cape Paarl
Wheat barley, oats,
canola
Mostly church land
and PLAS
Messrs William Matasane, commercial
farmer from Senekal (left) and Koos
Mthimkulu, Developing Farmer of the
Year for 2011, discuss wheat business
with Mr Jannie de Villiers, CEO of
Grain SA.