| Weekly Editorial |  |
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| Farmers Weekly |
| Weekly Editorial | |
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| Farmers Weekly |
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Farming gets what it needs | |
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It’s exactly what pioneering Ugie irrigation farmer Rob Farrington has been saying for almost 10 years now. Get farming’s big boys to drive land reform, or any other pressing problem facing South African agriculture. And of course, like most things Rob says, it makes perfect sense. These are the guys with the economies of scale that give them the sort of clout most dirt-scrabble farmers can only dream of. They have pull with the state because they employ as many people as they do, and like the pampered local automobile industry, can also argue that they are simply too big to be allowed to fail. Input suppliers make time for their phone calls because they buy so much of the stuff suppliers try to sell. And the secondary industry also gives them a direct line to the chaps that matter, simply because they produce so much of the stuff they need to buy. A big part of their value also lies in the fact that because of the scale and complexity of their operations, they have access to extraordinary networks and expertise. Everything from being on a first-name basis with some of the best farmers overseas, to having the numbers of the best local marketing and legal minds scribbled on a co-op invoice in their bakkie’s cubbyhole. The best information money can buy, all but a phone call away. All of which makes ProAgri’s almost sudden flurry of activity so welcome. Made up of former winners of the Agricultural Writers Farmers of the Year Competition, the organisation represents some of the country’s best farmers, and is headed by cane legend Charl Senekal. The man who not only counts President Jacob Zuma among his friends, but also managed to provide 300 000 people with water in the process of extending his sugarcane operations. Not a man who fools around. Although apparently founded in 2007, the organisation only now seems to be finding its stride, with its recent insistence that South African farmers start to speak with one voice, and not the three currently representing the three unions. Because, as President Zuma quite rightly pointed out during a recent, rather constructive meeting with Agri SA, he’d prefer speaking with the same group of farmers three times a year, to speaking with three different groups of farmers once a year. Besides the political impact they might have, a potentially far more exciting development for ordinary farmers is ProAgri’s announcement that they seem to have made good friends with the Chinese, who in turn seem to be delighted to be talking to a potentially lucrative farming market. As Charl told us “They (the Chinese) want us to buy everything they have to offer. It is a total package for agriculture, from bags straight through to implements, trucks, tyres, herbicides and other inputs.” And if there are concerns about Chinese quality, well, Charl and his networks alone can provide the sort of quality control the state would never be able to provide. That’s the value of the big boys. Here’s hoping this is just the beginning, because at last it seems that farming has identified the farmers who can finally get the things done that need doing. |fw |
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