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Presidential envoy on agriculture Wandile Sihlobo has proposed a path forward for South Africa’s agricultural sector that could lead to significantly expanded economic inclusion and large numbers of new employment activities.

He was speaking at the NAMPO Harvest Day convention on Thursday, after having addressed a panel discussion on the event.

Sihlobo pointed out that the state had acquired a portfolio of some 2.5 million hectares of land, 60% of which is arable. This, he said, could be released to emerging farmers, which would expand the agricultural sector by as much as 30%, and create 500 000 jobs.

For comparison, he said that all South Africa’s summer grains and oil seeds (which included its mealie and sunflower crops) were cultivated on 4.5 million hectares.

He remarked: “One of the things I am advising government on is how to move to release the land. If this land could be released, it would be a game-changer for the agricultural sector and South Africa.”

Sihlobo said that since 2006, the state had actively acquired farmland, but was reluctant to pass it on to beneficiaries. In particular, it favoured leases over ownership. This arrangement was not always conducive to establishing commercial farming operations.

Denying title deeds was unacceptable, since it would be “dishonest to tell black South Africans that we are serious about land reform, but we are not giving them the deeds to the land.”

Sihlobo suggested that a process of allocation could be done in collaboration with industry bodies, such as Grain SA, and with state agencies, such as the Department of Agriculture and the Land Bank, to support them.

Meanwhile, a Senegalese academic, Pape Abdoulaye Seck, has argued that Africa needs ongoing scientific innovation in its agricultural sector. Creating new strains of rice that used features of Asian and African varieties had proven extremely successful in improving output and raising farmers’ incomes in countries like Guinea and Uganda.

Agricultural innovation, Seck noted, would depend on access to new technologies and the associated inputs, proper funding, extension services, serviceable infrastructure, the presence of organised markets, and a suitable public policy environment.

For a country with a sophisticated agricultural sector like South Africa, innovation remains a crucial aspect of future competitiveness. However, the innovation ecosystem that Seck identified remains compromised by state weaknesses. This is particularly problematic for smaller and emerging farmers.