South Africa: Missing Harvest for Lack of Attention

As global food prices soar, one can't help wondering whether SA's agricultural sector might go the same way as its mining sector, which missed out on a couple of years of the strongest commodities boom in history because it couldn't expand investment and output fast enough.

It may be too early to make a call on agriculture, which is starting to benefit from better weather and higher commodity prices. But it is striking that the sector showed only fractional growth last year, of 0,3%, after contracting by nearly 8% in 2006. It's striking, too, that a country that used to feed itself has seen the volume of food imports grow 12% a year since 2000, and that SA last year exported only a little more food than it imported: R31bn in exports against R30bn in imports. Take out a few items (such as wine, now our largest agricultural export) and SA is a net importer. SA can produce more maize and sugar than it needs, and it also exports commodities such as pork and grapes, but it's a net importer of wheat, soya and poultry.

The global food storm has tended to grab the headlines here because of its effect on food-price inflation, but it's worth asking if SA is, or should be, taking advantage of the global boom in the prices of "soft" commodities such as maize to expand output and exports -- and whether anyone in high places is thinking about the policy issues involved.

SA's maize farmers are expected to realise R1500-R1600 a ton this year, up from R1100-R1200 last year and more than double the low of R600 two seasons ago. This year's crop is expected to be about 10-million tons, up from 6,9-million last year and above the longer-term average of 8-million, which has been increasing as farming technology has improved. And as the sector recovers from the droughts a couple of years ago and benefits from higher global and local prices, its contribution to economic growth could quite easily double this year.

Policy makers should surely also be looking beyond maize, at where and how SA's commercial farmers might be able to boost the output of other agricultural commodities, particularly for export. But one suspects that the focus of the agriculture and land affairs portfolio in government has been far more towards land than agriculture, with much attention paid to land reform, land restitution and small farmers, and very little to commercial farming. Of course it is crucial that those land issues be addressed and small farmers be promoted. But unless policy makers take a serious look at big farmers too, it may be too late for SA to capture the full benefits of the global boom.

View the AllAfrica story by clicking here.

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