Several challenges that various agribusinesses and farmers face fall within local government competencies, says the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz).
The chamber’s chief economist, Wandile Sihlobo, said this week that the primarily critical issues like poor road maintenance, electricity supply and water interruptions were also vital hindrances to investment and growth in the agriculture and agribusiness sector. These were also identified in the sector’s Master Plan.
Sihlobo said most of the national government’s agricultural policies and programmes depend on implementation by the provincial governments and municipalities for their success.
“The policies crafted in Pretoria have to find their way in various local agricultural strategies to materialise. The same goes for organised agriculture structures such as Agbiz. The engagements about multiple issues that constrain agribusinesses can be discussed with government leadership in Pretoria. Still, the execution is typically dependent on the co-operation of the provincial government and various municipalities.
“This doesn’t mean that the national government is not impactful, quite the opposite. It sets the tone and focus for policy and takes the lead in important programmes such as land reform and blended finance.
“But on most other policies, the details are often left to the provinces to execute. The levels of administrative efficiencies among the provinces are typically displayed through the implementation rate of various programmes,” he said.
Agbiz said the key to this process, besides the technical competence of each provincial government or municipality, was communication, as the government pushed to complete its Agriculture and Agro-processing Master Plan process by the end of the year and move towards implementation.
It said the implementation of the Master Plan will primarily depend on the collaboration of provincial governments, farmers and agribusinesses.
The organisation said in communities with agriculture potential which was limited or had no organised agriculture, such as various regions of Limpopo, the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, it was the government’s responsibility to communicate with community leaders in such areas.
It said the Master Plan was centred on a joint-venture approach to development. The communities were crucial to forming the shared vision and sense of responsibility in the implementation process, Agbiz said.
In areas with organised agriculture groups, the provincial government should be encouraged to interact with various agribusinesses in their regions, as they identified the potential projects of collaboration and areas of critical interventions to improve the ease of doing business.
Agbiz said the government should lead this process, assisted by the national structures of various farmer groupings. Such interactions were said to also help cover farmers and agribusinesses that were crucial in some towns, yet not members of established organised farmer and business groupings.
“All hands should be on deck during implementation. Roles and responsibilities should be communicated when agreed upon by the social partners. This requires effective communication from the government's side,” Sihlobo said.
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