Grain SA expands its support to new farmers in Eastern Cape

As part of a strategy to expand farmer development to the grain producing rural areas of the country, Grain SA officially opened a third regional office in the Eastern Cape in Maclear on 15 August. It will enhance the organisation's support to its 1 648 developing farmer members in the province.

"We need to get the Eastern Cape into production if we want to be food secure in the next five to fifteen years," Mr. Senzeni Zokwana, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, who official opened the office, commented.

“Farming has a future. Mining has a beginning and an end. Mining only feeds a few shareholders whilst Agriculture will feed the nations! We don’t take farms without compensation. It is those who work the land who should own it” Minister Zokwana told 150 new era commercial farmers and stakeholders.

“The National Development Plan is clear about the fact that agriculture needs to play the dual role of providing food and jobs. The Eastern Cape is the area in our country where food production, especially maize, soybeans and sorghum production, can be expanded. The biofuel plant that is to be erected at Cradock will be running on grain sorghum that will most likely be produced by the very farmers that will be serviced from this office,” Minister Zokwana added.

He also referred to the expansion of the mining sector in Mpumalanga which impacts negatively on grain production and applauded the vision of Grain SA to migrate the production that will be lost there to the Eastern Cape. He added that Government will have to prioritise this area, especially with regard to storage and transportation networks for the region.

“We are aware of the infrastructural needs of agriculture in this Province and the investments we are planning will also contribute towards creating jobs in this part of the country.”

"It fills me with a great sense of exhilaration to hear of and see Black farmers who are producing yields that are commercially competitive and that can stand up to any of their white commercial neighbours. This program of Grain SA and their partners shows us how to develop farmers that are sustainable and can ensure food security for our children. We need to speed it up and get other commodities on board at the same level,” Zokwana said.

According to Mr. Jannie de Villiers, CEO of Grain SA, every kernel planted in South Africa is an investment against poverty. The establishment of ten farmer development centres in total serving 4 115 black farmers in the grain producing provinces underlines Grain SA's strategy to contribute to successful land reform in South Africa, whilst ensuring household as well as national food security for the nation.

De Villiers also recognised the funding of Grain SA's farmer development programme in the Eastern Cape by the Maize Trust and the subsidy of farmers' production costs by the Grain Farmers Development Association (GFADA).

"Black farmers struggle to obtain financing because they don't own the title deeds to the land they are cultivating. I want to make a plea to financial institutions to find alternative avenues to accommodate new entrants to grain production," De Villiers added.

In addition to the positive impact this office will have on the local community Grain SA also handed over a copier/printer machine to Mrs Constance Ndakisa, principal of the Joelshoek Farm School, situated just outside Maclear.

Ends

Issued by:
Grain SA Communications
15 August 2014

Further enquiries:
Jannie de Villiers, Chief Executive Officer, Grain SA
086 004 7246 | jannie@grainsa.co.za
www.grainsa.co.za