‘Challenges to sustainable growth of SA agriculture’

Despite investment from the business sector and the fact the South African agriculture sector is growing, serious interventions are needed to ensure that growth remains sustainable and inclusive. This was according to Theo Boshoff, CEO of Agbiz.

“Let’s use the citrus industry as an example. BFAP [the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy] estimates that our citrus production could increase by as much as 50% by 2030, considering the number of trees that have been planted but are yet to yield fruit.

“Most of this [fruit] is destined for exports, but we’ll need to negotiate more favourable trade terms with several export markets if we are to remain competitive with countries in South America and Australasia, among others,” he told Farmer’s Weekly.

According to Boshoff, trade opportunities were closely related to the state of the local logistics infrastructure.

Increased production and formal access to markets would be of little value if producers were unable to send products to markets.

This was a challenge that cut across almost every value chain, and South African port container facilities were struggling to keep up with the demand during peak export seasons.

Investment in modern infrastructure was also needed to ensure that productivity remained up to international standards.

“Likewise, border posts such as Beitbridge with Zimbabwe and Lebombo with Mozambique are seriously hampering intraAfrican trade. Unless we modernise these ports [of entry], a common trade area within the continent will sadly remain a pipe dream,” he added.

Boshoff bemoaned the fact that provincial and municipal roads were not being maintained to an acceptable level, and said the rural road network was the lifeblood of the agriculture sector.

These factors, coupled with the adaptation of new technology, capacity in key regulatory positions, and climate change adaptation, were critical to sustaining the sector’s strong performance. Free State Agriculture (FSA), meanwhile, welcomed the National Disaster Management Centre’s recent classification of severe rainfall and flooding experienced in parts of the country as a national disaster, but made an urgent plea for the reallocation of a portion of the intended funds to the Free State Department of Police, Roads and Transport for the rehabilitation of the province’s road network.

Dr Jack Armour, FSA’s commercial manager, said: “The roads were in a deplorable condition even before the disaster. If the department had properly maintained our roads, the extent of the damage [caused by the floods] wouldn’t have been as bad.”

The 2021/22 wine grape season will go down as a good yet expensive season, according to Conrad Schutte, consultation services manager at Vinpro.

Speaking at the annual Nedbank Vinpro Information Day held recently, Schutte said production was expected to be lower than last season’s almost 1,46 million tons, but higher than the industry’s five-year average of about 1,34 million tons.

The industry had taken the decision not to make the exact figures of this season’s crop estimate publicly available until May.

Production was expected to be lower than that of last season in the Orange River, Olifants River, Swartland, Paarl, Robertson, Worcester and Breedekloof regions, but higher in the Southern Cape and Klein Karoo regions, as well as the Stellenbosch area.

Schutte said wet spring and summer conditions in various regions, such as the Orange River, Olifants River, Swartland and Southern Cape, had made it difficult to get into vineyards to apply fungicide when necessary, resulting in “an explosion of powdery and downy mildew infestations on many farms in these regions”.

“Farmers will either have to remove infected wine grapes before mechanically harvesting them or perform selective harvesting when picking by hand, to prevent them from negatively affecting wine grape quality,” Schutte said.

He added that it was difficult to estimate the extent of the losses. “[Grapes] in some vineyard blocks situated within [the] Paarl [area] specifically are now estimated [to have] 5% infection, but prior experience has taught us that losses could be up to double that estimate, so we’ll only know later this season.”

In addition, supply chain disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic had resulted in cover crops being planted later than usual and this, combined with the favourable climatic conditions, had resulted in extensive problems with weeds in some areas, driving up herbicide and weed-management costs.

Vegetative growth was also “out of control” in some regions, with Chenin Blanc vines in the Paarl area, for example, growing into what Schutte called “locomotive canopies”. “Like a locomotive, these canopies grow fast and require a lot of labour to get under control. For instance, farmers will have to tuck the main shoots into the trellises and remove side shoots and some leaves.”

On top of this, production costs had increased by approximately 15%, while farm-gate prices had increased by only between 3% and 5%.

Wines of South Africa (WoSA) reported earlier this month that wine exports had recovered to “a healthier volume of 388 million litres”, while the total value of exports had grown to R10,2 billion, compared with 2018 when a total volume of 420 million litres fetched only R9,1 billion.

Siobhan Thompson, CEO of WoSA, said she expected this growth trend in volume and value to continue, but it would probably be curtailed by the shortage of packaging materials, including labels and bottles, container shortages, a large increase in export costs via certain routes, and problems at the Port of Cape Town.