Professor paints bleak picture of SA farming
‘Investment in human capital is only solution’
KOMGA farmers were yesterday given a sharp political and economic lesson on why their agricultural endeavours were on the decline by leading Stellenbosch agricultural scientist Professor Mohammad Karaan.
The guest speaker at the opening of the three-day Komga Agricultural Show yesterday spoke at length – and with insight – about why agricultural security and success in South Africa depended on the diverse human capital that is invested in the sector.
Sixty rugged cattle ranchers from Eastern Cape farming associations listened attentively to to the former dean of Stellenbosch University’s AgriSciences faculty.
Karaan’s grandfather was a dairy and tobacco farmer in Umzimkhulu in the 1940s and early 1950s before Indian farmers were prohibited from farming in the former Transkei.
He said it was vital that established, successful farmers shared their know-how with talented and enthusiastic black people, youth and women.
“We have to get away from this thing that it’s a man’s world. And we need to attract the most talented children at school, early in life. It could be farm labourers’ kids that are put through good schools and tertiary study before they are taught the practicalities.”
Karaan, who is also a commissioner of the National Planning Commission, said children left school and university unable to do a job and had to be retrained. “This industry is so damn tough and I have seen 120 000 farmers go down to 100 000 farmers.”
Addressing the land distribution question, he likened the South African landscape to countries such as Spain and Haiti, where centuries ago settlers had ended up owning the majority of land and business and had eventually been driven out or killed by local people.
“It takes a long time, but it does happen,” he warned.
“How does South Africa craft a [farming] future when [land] contestations can be devastating?
“Don’t think this won’t happen to us. Unless you invest in the human capital of a country, you cannot have justice. The fact is people have been dispossessed and someone got land unlawfully, but how do we restore it?”
He said land reform until now had been done incorrectly.
“Family farms will perish and by the time our kids grow up there will be less than half of them left,” he said.
“There won’t be family farms, but there will be corporate companies that invest in agriculture.
“This may seem like prosperity, but it will be utter destruction.”
Karaan said it was not possible to develop a country simply by changing its ownership without changing know-how and capacity.
“Skills in a country come from skilled immigrants and we have already seen this at play. Most of the wealth in Africa is in the hands of China or Arab countries and the people who are the most prosperous are the immigrant communities.
“I do see young black kids studying agriculture. They are starry-eyed, wanting to be like you. They are a positive talent.
“But the problem is that when they graduate they have no opportunities. No farmers or farming associations come to me and say, “do you have a black graduate I can make as successful as I am?” —