• Farmers say the Department of Agriculture ignored them and signed the Agricultural and Agro-processing Master Plan without input from those who actually grow the food.

• Leaders like Theo de Jager and Bennie van Zyl warn the plan puts politics before farming, leaving safety, disease control and productivity unsolved.

Farmers are fuming after the government signed the Agricultural and Agro-processing Master Plan without including their concerns.

Theo de Jager from the Southern African Agri Initiative said it’s a plan “without farmers” and nothing in it helps those working the land.

He said the plan fails to deal with real problems like keeping farms profitable, sustainable and safe.

“When transformation is put above everything else, you end up with load shedding, failing hospitals and bankrupt state companies,” said De Jager, The Citizen reported.

He said the Department of Agriculture ignored all nine objections they submitted. “Just because the minister is now from the DA doesn’t make the plan acceptable.”

Bennie van Zyl from the farming union TLU-SA said their members were kicked out of the 2022 signing ceremony for asking what “transformation” means, a word that appears 92 times in the plan.

He said transformation cannot come before the economy. “We’re stuck in a country where ideology is more important than making things work,” said Van Zyl.

He added that most of the farms given to new owners by the government have stopped producing.

Back in 2008, farmers offered practical ideas to help new farmers succeed. “Our farmers still feed this country – we’re still net food exporters,” he said.

Free State cattle farmer Tewie Wessels said the plan ignores pressing problems. “It’s all promises, nothing ever happens. You wonder if they can even enforce the rules they keep talking about.”

Pictured above: A farmer.

Image source: Pexels