Land isn't all farmers need to succeed: Mantashe

Farmers cannot succeed without funding and support programs, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Wednesday.

"If we are to succeed, farmers must have access to funding and markets. If they don't have that you won't succeed," he said at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg.

"You can give land to as many farmers as you want but if you don't have support programs it will fail."

Mantashe was speaking about food security and land reform.

He said the agriculture sector was an opportunity for business that went beyond land reform.

"Agriculture must be in a position to quantify profits. Develop the market, grow it... profits come later."

He said emerging farmers needed to start small and then grow the business.

Mantashe urged commercial farmers to help groom emerging farmers and help them regain the skills needed for farming, which they had lost during apartheid.

"We have a responsibility to make people with no homes realise there is a future in South Africa," he said.

"Black South Africans were dispossessed of land. The dispossession resulted in them [being driven] out of their land, but it also deskilled them," he said.

He said people lost their skills because they had not farmed for so long and had lost their relationship with the land.

"Commercial farmers must help [emerging farmers] reproduce the skill," said Mantashe.

"Land reform is about dealing with the past and building the future. Share the country together, wherever we are."

Mantashe said citizens had a duty to work for common prosperity and driving change was the way to go.

"Drive change, don't impose it. Every change is associated with loss... We must take charge of change."

He said when black farmers asked for access to land they wanted to be productive.

"Commercial farmers can make a difference all round."

They could help with skills development, mentorship, and grow food production.

They could also help contribute to the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

Agriculture and Forestry Minister Senzeni Zokwana said agriculture contributed 2.7 percent to GDP but it could be higher -- around five to seven percent.

He said a sense of "brotherhood" was needed between fellow farmers to produce to the maximum and help the economy.

He acknowledged several problems in the sector, including foot and mouth disease, citrus black spot (CBS), and medicine for ill animals.

Animal diseases could lead to exports of red meat being banned.

Zokwana suggested that farmers pay less for medicine for sick animals as it was expensive. There was also a scarcity of veterinarians in the sector.

His department was "dealing with" CBS.