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ZIWAPHI • VOL 4 NO 9 • 7 - 13 May 2010

NELSPRUIT

Agricultural mentorships are not the answer to land reform projects that have failed – they can only benefit farms that have achieved some measure of sustainability already.

This is the view of several agricultural experts and lobby groups, such as the Rural Action Committee of Mpumalanga Province (TRAC-MP). 

Its director, Chris Williams, is skeptical whether the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform’s new mentorship programme, which calls for the help of “successful commercial farmers”, will make much of a difference.

“In Mpumalanga, only 12 of 600 land reform farms are sustainable at present. On some of these failed farms the beneficiaries have left to return to townships and villages and mentors will not help to bring these people back into the farming fold,” he said.

Williams stresses that failed land reform projects need organisational development support and, in some cases, even legal action to restore democracy, transparency and equality among the members or beneficiaries, which would solve conflict among them.

“The department should have strengthened the existing mentorships and consulted with agricultural stakeholders. Land reform needs a different strategy to turn the distressed farms into successful ones.”

Williams said mentorship would only work on farms that are already on track but may be experiencing production problems or a lack of farming skills.

“The emerging farmers need capital, structures, electricity and equipment to make farming possible. The strategies must be realistic so that it can be implementable and fulfil the needs of the beneficiaries.”

Professor Charles Machete of the department of agricultural economics, extension and rural development at the University of Pretoria also believes the mentorships might work on farms where the beneficiaries’ problems stem from a lack of “know-how”.

“But to get [failed] projects back on their feet, we need initiatives that will address all the problems experienced on these projects. Mentorship, if properly implemented, will only provide a partial solution to the land reform problems,” he said.

The chairperson of the Nkomazi Agricultural Development Organisation, Petrus Sithole, agrees, saying the department’s plan should address a range of issues in an “integrated and coordinated fashion that must fundamentally address the needs of beneficiaries”.

“Mentorship must be implemented only on projects that have capital, markets and working equipment to make them sustainable,” said Sithole.

Nationwide, almost six million hectares have been transferred through restitution and redistribution, but much of this land lie fallow and has not created any economic benefit for the farmers.

On its website, the department states that the purpose of the new mentorship programme is to ensure that land is used productively, contributes to food security and provides employment to rural communities.

The mentors will enter into share equity arrangements and co-management with beneficiaries and the department, and they are expected to assist with farm assessments, turnaround strategies for distressed farms, preparing farm and business plans, training and skills transfer.

Provincial department spokesperson Zithini Dlamini said the mentors would help distressed farms because they would work closely with the beneficiaries and the process would be closely monitored.

“Projects to be recapitalised will be assessed by the relevant people, credible plans on how to do that will then be made available and the mentor will then be expected to work according to the suggested plan,” said Dlamini, adding that 90% of land reform projects in the province would require this kind of intervention.

She said the department had received a “positive response” to the call for mentors, but could not provide any figures because the applications went to the national department, which did not reply to questions for more than a week.

“A meeting with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has been arranged so that we can learn some lessons from them. Therefore, for now it cannot be confirmed whether the new mentorships will be similar or different from the old ones,” she said.