Growth in agriculture is in general two to three times more effective at reducing poverty than an equivalent amount of growth generated outside agriculture.
This was according to Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at Agbiz, during a recent roundtable event aimed at accelerating the implementation of the Agriculture and Agro-processing Master Plan, organised by the National Planning Commission and the National Agricultural Marketing Council.
“We should not plan anymore – we should just fix what is broken and need all hands on deck,” he added.
According to Sihlobo, the advantage of agriculture in reducing poverty is that it benefits the poorest individuals. The benefits include food security and the prevention of malnutrition.
Growth and innovation in agriculture also benefit the sector through higher returns on investment for producers, increased job opportunities and the reduction of consumer prices.
“Rising agricultural productivity not only reduces poverty by releasing agricultural labour to non-agricultural activities, but also by pulling surplus labour from less productive home production into commercial agriculture. But rural areas remain with challenges and agriculture is not performing at its full potential,” Sihlobo said.
The challenges include high poverty levels, unemployment and limited economic activity, as well as inept municipal governance.
The duplication of effort and budgets between provinces, district municipalities and local municipalities is problematic, and responsibilities in terms of improving poor service delivery, poor roads, deteriorating water infrastructure and so forth are not well defined.
He said rural communities were in despair and had no hope because of issues such as the rising crime rate.
Sihlobo also took issue with matters, as he put it, such as “the criminal destruction of South Africa’s rail network and the poor management and state capture of Transnet, as well as the collapse of our ports and the inability to explore our advances in the export industries. We are also faced by, among others, animal diseases and the fact that problems with our veterinary services are destabilising progress in the livestock industry.”
