Harry Gwala Agri, a non-profit organisation formed by commercial farmers and supporting partners in the Harry Gwala region of KZN, started operating on Wednesday in Creighton.
It focuses on building relationships and through these relationships, assisting developing farmers in meaningful ways.
A collaboration between farmers and other partners from Kokstad, Highflats, Ixopo, Creighton and Swartberg, Harry Gwala Agri aims to facilitate the sharing of farming resources including knowledge, equipment, funding and training, with emerging farmers.
Community members, farmers, agriculture professionals, banks, businesses and experts joined government officials, including Ubuhlebezwe Mayor Zamo Mxumalo, on Wednesday to learn about the initiative.
“Harry Gwala Agri aims to make a difference by uplifting, upskilling, funding and facilitating developing farmers in the Harry Gwala District,” said John Bredin, chairperson of the initiative.
“The land question, and more recently land reform, is a political football,” he said. “We are not saying there isn’t a need to redistribute land in this country. On the contrary, we know this needs to happen. What we are saying is there should be structures in place to allow for a redistribution of skills to nurture the passion of developing farmers into successful and sustainable farming enterprises.”
KZN Agricultural Union (Kwanalu) president Andy Buchan said: “An initiative like this reinforces my belief there is sufficient goodwill in our communities to facilitate the transformation
During his State of the Province Address (SOPA) earlier this month, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Willies Mchunu said the province will be embarking on the radical Agrarian SocioEconomic Transformation, which will develop emerging farmers.
“[The] programme is aimed at improving the value chain of food production and supply for underprivileged farmers and emerging agribusinesses by attending to structural barriers associated within existing value chains.” Land issues in the province remain a highly emotive issue and it is again an area deserving heightened attention and a more radical approach to meet the desired outcomes, Mchunu said.
“Progress with the Land Restitution Programme has been slow due to a variety of reasons, most significant of which is the constraint on the fiscus and budget available to support land claim projects.