Agri SA is calling on the corporate sector and public to contribute to the Drought Relief Fund as their office is inundated with calls for drought relief assistance from commercial and emerging farmers. Contributions will go to the purchasing of feed pellets and the transportation thereof to farmers in need.
Cgoodwin via Wikimedia Commons
Another big concern to Agri SA is the fact that more and more highly productive and successful commercial farmers are struggling to make ends meet. We appeal to our commercial banks and agribusinesses to find ways and means to prevent large-scale bankruptcies amongst these farmers. We also appeal to the government for assistance as these farmers have played a crucial role to produce food on a large scale for the commercial market.
It’s especially farmers in parts of the Northern Cape, Free State and North West, Eastern Cape and Western Cape that face a severe crisis currently and who are in desperate need of financial assistance. They can no longer afford to buy animal feed and lack the cash flow to keep farm operations going. Boreholes on many farms are also starting to dry up and animals are dying. Farm workers and their families also have a desperate need for humanitarian assistance.
The continuous devastating impact of the drought in parts of South Africa has a very negative and destructive effect on the socio-economic fiber of many rural communities. Losing more and more of our commercial farmers who are the backbone of economic growth and job creation will just exacerbate the conditions of poverty and unemployment.
Agri SA is appealing to the corporate sector and the general public to contribute towards the Agri SA Drought Relief Fund because our farmers need our assistance now more than ever.
Updated report about Agri SA’s drought relief assistance provided to farmers:
The shortage of winter fodder is a real problem and any contributions are greatly appreciated by the public. Further disbursements from the drought fund will be made in August and September to provinces that experience a severe shortage of winter feed.
For more details contact Christo van der Rheede: 012 643 3400 or christo@agrisa.co.za
Kenia.
Foto: www.commons.wikimedia.org
Die Oos-Afrika-gemeenskap (East African Community, of EAC) het verlede week skielik besluit om nie ’n omvattende ekonomiese samewerkingsooreenkoms te onderteken nie.
Dit kom al het die Oos-Afrika-besigheidsraad (EABC) die lidstate aangemoedig om wel die ooreenkoms te onderteken ten einde invoerregte te behou.
Die EAC bestaan uit Burundi, Kenia, Rwanda, Tanzanië en Uganda.
Die ooreenkoms sou aanvanklik in die eerste week van Augustus geskied het, maar toe beveel die EABC aan dat dié datum terugskuif na verlede week, sodat die ondertekening met die Europese Unie se handelskommissaris saamval.
Plaaslike burgerregte-organisasies wat die voorwaardes van die voorgestelde ooreenkoms bestudeer het, meen die werklike rede hoekom die ondertekening vervroeg is, is nie omdat die EAC noodwendig tevrede was met die voorwaardes van die ooreenkoms maak nie, maar eerder sodat Kenia nie sy tarief- en kwotavrye toegang tot die EU verloor nie.
Bron: AllAfrica
Smallholder farmers prosper if they have access to knowledge and use of inputs such as fertilizers and credit. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS
LOUIS TRICHARDT, South Africa, Jul 26 2016 (IPS) – Brightly coloured cans, bags of fertilizer and packets containing all types of seeds catch the eye upon entering Nancy Khorommbi’s agro dealer shop tucked at the corner of a roadside service station.
But her seeds and fertilizers have not exactly been flying off the shelves since Khorommbi opened the fledging shop six years ago. Her customers: smallholder farmers in the laid back town of Sibasa, 72 kilometers northeast of Louis Trichardt in Limpopo, one of South Africa’s provinces hard hit by drought this year. The reason for the slow business is that smallholder farmers cannot access, let alone effectively use plant-nourishing fertilizers to improve their low productivity.
“Some of the farmers who walk into my shop have never heard about fertilizers and those who have, do not know how to use them effectively,” Khorommbi told IPS said on the sidelines of a training workshop organised by the International Fertilizer Association (IFA)-supported African Fertilizer Volunteers Program (AFVP) to teach smallholders farmers and agro dealers like her about fertilizers in Limpopo.
Khorommbi, describing information as power, says fledging agro-dealer businesses are a critical link in the food production chain. Agro-dealers, who work at the village level, better understand and are more accessible to smallholder farmers, who in many cases rely on the often poorly resourced government extension service for information on improving productivity.
“Smallholder farmers can make the change in food security through better production, one of whose key elements is fertilizer,” said Khrorommbi, one of more than 100 agro-dealers in the Vhembe District of Limpopo.
An assistant checks stock in Nancy Khorommbi’s agro dealer shop in Vhembe District, Limpopo, South Africa. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS
Growing knowledge, growing farmers
Noting the knowledge gap on fertilizers, the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP), supported by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and private sector partners, launched Agribusiness Support to the Limpopo Province (ASLP) in 2015 which has trained over 100 agro-dealers in the Province.
The project promotes the development of the agro dealer hub model, where established commercial agro dealers service smaller agro dealers and agents in the rural areas, who in turn better serve smallholder farmers by putting agricultural inputs within easy reach and at reasonable cost. The AFVP aims to attract the private sector in South Africa – a net fertilizer importer – to developing the SMEs sector in the fertilizer value chain focusing on smallholder farmers and agro dealers.
Smallholder farmers hold the key to feeding Africa, including South Africa, but their productivity is stymied by poor access to inputs and even effective markets for their produce, an issue the FAO believes private and public sector partnerships can solve.
AFAP and a private company, Kynoch Fertilizer, have embarked on an entrepreneurship development program for smallholder farmers and agro dealers in the Limpopo province, one of the country’s bread baskets, in an effort to help close the ‘yield gap’ among smallholder farmers. Smallholder farmers and agro dealers have been trained on fertilisers, soils, plant nutrients, safe storage of fertilizers, environmental safety and business management skills.
“By using more fertilisers correctly, South Africa’s smallholder farmers can grow more and nutritious food, achieve household food security, create jobs, increase incomes and boost rural development,” AFAP’s Vice-President, Prof. Richard Mkandawire, told IPS. “To grow and support SMEs in Africa is the pathway if we are to reduce hunger and poverty. The future of South Africa is about growing those rural enterprises that will support smallholder farmers and employment creation.’
In 2006, African Heads of State and Government signed the Abuja Declaration at a Fertilizer Summit in Nigeria committing to increase the use of fertilizer in Africa from the then-average 8kg per hectare to 50kg per hectare by 2015 to boost productivity. Ten years later, only a few countries have attained this goal.
Mkandawire said research has established that for every kilogram of nutrients smallholder farmers apply to their soils, they can realize up to 30kg in additional products.
Research has shown that smallholder farmers in South Africa in general do not apply optimum levels of fertilizers owing to high cost, poor access and low awareness about the benefits of providing nutrition for the soil.
Fertilizer Registrar and Director in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forests (DAFF) in Limpopo Province Jonathan Mudzunga says smallholder farmers have structural difficulties in getting much needed fertilizers, a critical input in raising crop yields and providing business and employment creation opportunities for agro dealers.
“Commercial farmers are successful because they have access to inputs such as fertilizers and knowledge and it does not mean smallholder farmers are having challenges because they do not know how to farm but the biggest issue is knowledge and access to affordable inputs,” Mudzunga said.
Agriculturalist at Kynoch, Schalk Grobbelaar, says smallholder agricultural production in Limpopo is hampered by, amongst other things, low use of productivity-enhancing inputs such as fertilizers, seeds and crop protection products; animal feeds and veterinary medicines for livestock.
“Fertilizer increase yields. We fertilize what crops will take away and we put back into the soil but farmers lack knowledge on the balancing fertilizers according to what crops need,” said Grobbelaar.
Agriculture support is food business
The South African government is promoting SME development and growth of smallholder farmers who are key to tackling food insecurity at household level.
Despite their high contribution to economic growth and job creation, SME’s are challenged by among other factors, funding and access to finance, according to the 2015/16 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Report. Lack of finance is a major reason for SMEs – which contribute 45 percent to South Africa’s GDP- leaving a business in addition to the poor management skills which are a result of lack of adequate training and education.
While the country produces more than enough food for all, many South Africans do not access the right amount and type of food, says a 2014 report by the Southern Africa Food Lab, an organisation promoting food security in the region.
“Poor South Africans are not able to spend money on a diverse diet. Instead the only option to facilitate satiety and alleviate hunger is to feed family members large portions of maize meal porridge that do not address nutritional needs,” according to Laura Pereira, author of the Food Lab report.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates, bemoaning underinvestment in Africa’s agriculture, said innovation from farm to market was one solution to turning the sector – employing half of the continent’s population – into a thriving business.
“African farmers need better tools to avoid disasters and grow a surplus – things like seeds that can tolerate droughts, floods, pests, and disease, affordable fertilizer that includes the right mix of nutrients to replenish the soil,” Gates said when he presented the 14th Nelson Mandela Lecture in Pretoria, South Africa last week.
Gates said farmers need to be connected to markets where they can buy inputs, sell their surplus and earn a profit and for them to reinvest in into the farm. That in turn provides on and off the farm employment opportunities and supports a range of local agribusinesses.
According to Standard Bank, the significant degree to which the agricultural business model is shifting is indicated by the fact that South Africa’s most successful agricultural operations are all younger than five years.
© Fotolia.com
Many of them function at a distance from conventional agricultural and business centres, and provide offerings not previously known to the sector.
“Everything in agriculture is changing, from the types of food consumers want, to the way agriculture acts as custodian of the environment,” says Bertie Hamman, senior manager: secondary agriculture for Standard Bank. “Agricultural entrepreneurs have understood this and are putting together new businesses in ways that ensure farms and factories can be profitable because they are set up to meet the market’s new demands.”
“The days of simply delivering your product to an off-taker or retailer, and the consumer blindly accepting it, are long gone. Today, the consumer dictates what should be on the shelf and the business of agri-business is to ensure it gets there in the most cost effective way,” Hamman adds.
Agriculture has become a demand pulled service sector.
1. Sustainability
The first fundamental element of sustainability is exemplified by the enterprises that Standard Bank has supported, founding their business models on consumer preferences for convenient access to safe, healthy, nutritious products.
“It’s a straightforward principle, but not easy to execute as consumer preferences shift constantly,” Hamman says. “The key to success lies in aligning with global trends, of which the major one at the moment is ‘naturally functional foods and ingredients’.” The intrinsic health benefits of a food or ingredient are emphasised, without specific health claims having to be made. Providers make the places of origin public, along with their production methodologies such as cold pressed or free range, via packaging and marketing.
It’s easier for new producers with modern technologies and production processes to be responsive to the market in this way, because they are not hampered by the legacy systems and facilities with which longer-established companies are burdened. Older companies are also disadvantaged by product ranges with which consumers are familiar, and of which they are becoming suspicious, because of outdated production processes and assumptions about nutrition.
2. Innovation
“A second critical sustainability factor is innovation that makes your operation commercially relevant,” Hamman notes. “The facilities the bank has funded recently are all state of the art, conform to global standards, and have the smallest environmental impact achievable with current technology. This gives them credibility with consumers and also provides the producers with means to be more efficient and, therefore, more profitable.”
However, innovation should always go beyond technology to encompass the entire organisation. “For instance, as a bank we have always advocated the commercial relevance of integrating sector value chains. Done responsibly, with intelligent application of relevant skills sets, you can establish natural affinities along the value chain and therefore, embed demand, supply, and other stakeholder fundamentals far more effectively than what is possible through traditional contractual options.”
3. Financial acumen
The third fundamental for sustainability – financial acumen – seems obvious. Yet, Hamman says, CEOs and CFOs who are not seasoned businessmen are often surprised by the financial implications of their business decisions.
“Choosing to grow revenue through aggressive marketing at lower margins not only impacts the income statement in the form of lower profitability, it also has a material impact on the working capital cycle and, as a consequence, free cash flows. In fact, less experienced entrepreneurs regularly get their estimate of the cash generative ability of their ventures extremely wrong and have to go into fire-fighting mode.”
4. Inclusivity
The fourth fundamental, inclusivity, acknowledges the fact that no enterprise operates in isolation from its social, economic, and environmental milieu.
Hamman notes that the ventures supported by Standard Bank have been built around all their stakeholders – including suppliers, employees, off-takers, local authorities, and the wider business communities within which the enterprises operate. The business plans proactively integrates and aligns stakeholder interests and expectations.
“This is not easy, but the results in terms of support from community leaders, the commitment of employees who also double as shareholders, ISO accreditations from industry, and enthusiastic and unanimous product listing by major retail chains, go straight to the bottom line.”
5. Strong leadership
The final fundamental for an agricultural business being sustainable, is strong leadership and should be a given, but is often hardest to achieve. Every business needs someone in front, selling the vision of the business to stakeholders. The executive team should be keen and quick to understand the business issues as they arise, addressing them in ways that lead to good outcomes. Executives should have excellent knowledge of and insight into the financial, marketing, and operational functions of the business in order to be able to make timely, forward-looking decisions.
Hamman concludes: “Your leaders need to enjoy being challenged continuously. The world of agri-business will never be comfortably static again. It’s all about riding this wave successfully, while you prepare for the one that is just behind you.”
