Agriculture: Farm size limit ‘negotiating tactic’

A PROPOSAL by the government to limit farm sizes to 12 000 hectares was a “negotiating tactic” as it tried to press ahead with the redistribution of land to black farmers, the Minister of Agriculture, Senzeni Zokwana, said yesterday. “Whenever you are negotiating, you always put forward a figure. What informs the end of that figure is the process of negotiation,” Zokwana told Reuters when asked about the figure. Speaking on the sidelines of a conference organised by industry group Grain SA in the heart of the maize belt west of Johannesburg, Zokwana said whatever figure was eventually arrived at, farmers could lease additional land if they needed to for commercial reasons. – Reuters