South African farmers' union accuses govt. of hostility to commercial agriculture

The South African national agriculture budget ignored food security and the needs of the poor in a country with poor agricultural conditions, the Freedom Front Plus and the farmer's union, TAU, have said.

Agriculture had been made subservient to land reform, said Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus parliamentary spokesperson on agriculture and land affairs.

The agriculture budget was R2.5 billion (I Rand = 13 US cents) whereas the budget for land reform was R6.6 billion out of the R9.1 billion budget for the department of agriculture and land affairs, he said.

"The minister of agriculture and land Affairs, Lulama Xingwana's, focus should be on food security for South Africa. The budget and budget tendencies, however, indicate that her focus, once again, will be on ideological land reform."

An additional R2.1 billion was granted for restitution claims and transformation grants had increased from R504 million to R1.7 billion, an increase of more than 200 percent.

Paul van der Walt, a spokesperson for TUA, said the government's ignorance and inability to formulate a proper agricultural policy were to the disadvantage of the economy and the poor.

Lower exports and higher imports led to the loss of foreign exchange and affected the balance of payments.

"The current government policy clearly reflects repugnancy towards commercial agriculture which in return will lead to food shortages and price hikes," said Van der Walt.

Business Report