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Mei 2015
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Partnership to promote
commercial grain production
T
he agricultural sector in South Africa is faced with a vast
number of different scenarios – on the one hand there are
excellent large-scale, commercial producers who compare
with the best in the world, and on the other hand there
are subsistence farmers who are struggling to feed their families.
The former homeland areas cover 13% of South Africa which is in
the region of 18 million ha (only a portion of this is arable land
however), and in the Grain SA Grain Farmer Development Pro-
gramme, we have more than 3 500 subsistence farmer members
(those currently farming on less than 3 ha of land). In order to achieve
household food security with regard to staple food, each of these
households needs 1 ton of maize per year. Currently these farmers
are producing less than 1 ton per ha, despite many of them being
in the high potential areas of the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and
KwaZulu-Natal.
The reason for these poor yields relates directly to production prac-
tices – open pollinated seed, soil acid saturation, inadequate use of
fertiliser and poor weed control. This can all be changed however.
Over the past number of years, Grain SA has been fortunate to
have a Grain Farmer Development Programme which is funded by
the Maize Trust, Winter Cereal Trust, Oil and Protein Seeds Develop-
ment Trust, Sorghum Trust, the ARC and AgriSETA.
The mission of this programme is: “To develop capacitated black
commercial producers and to contribute to household and national
food security through the optimal use of
the natural resources available to each pro-
ducer”.
The farmers who are members of the pro-
gramme receive training and skills devel-
opment through study group meetings,
demonstration trials that are planted near
their lands, farmers days where they re-
ceive information from industry, a Farmer
of the Year competition to encourage them,
individual on farm support for the larger
farmers, training courses on all aspects
of grain, oil seeds and cereal production,
and a monthly newsletter which gives time
specific, relevant information.
There are thousands of small farmers who
have been exposed to the correct practic-
es, but unfortunately many of them are not
able to access the correct production in-
puts, and are not supported in their fields
during the critical months of summer crop
production.
The concept of “commercial farming” is
difficult to contextualise in the deep ru-
ral areas. The realities of the communal
land tenure system do not always allow
for “economies of scale”. In our Grain Farmer Development Pro-
gramme we have started to use the term “economies of efficiency”
– you may therefore not have land of a commercial size, but you
can attain a commercial yield on the land that is available.
A project is born
During 2014, the ARC indicated that they would be willing to
sponsor the costs of mentorship for a number of farmers so that
they adopt modern methods of production, and at the same time
Monsanto made an offer to assist farmers to access very good
Round-up Ready hybrid maize seed (treated) with Roundup for 1 ha.
This was the start of the project.
The success of any development programme is directly linked to
the involvement and ownership of the project by the beneficiar-
ies (farmers). Each farmer who wanted to be part of the project had
to contribute R1 500 per ha which they paid into a special bank ac-
count created for this purpose (a Standard Bank Third Party Fund
Administration Account managed by Grain SA). Time was running
out and by 10 October 2014, 855 farmers had deposited their money.
The criteria for participation in the project were:
Contribute R1 500 toward the costs of inputs.
Access to a knapsack sprayer and handheld planter.
Be a member of a study group.
Have attended an
Introduction to maize production
course.
Possession of a soil sample not older than three years.
GRAIN SA
JANE MCPHERSON,
manager: Grain Farmer Development Programme, Grain SA
Figure 1: The location of the farmers.
– starting at one hectare...