(Agricultural) Boom and challenge (in South Africa)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://free.financialmail.co.za/08/0606/features/afeat.htm

06 June 2008
AGRICULTURE

Boom and challenge

By Shannon Sherry

Farmers should accept the rules of the game and conduct business accordingly

As the international food crisis worsens, two challenges have emerged that farmers are obliged to face: the optimisation of opportunities arising from the unprecedented demand for their products, and keeping at bay hunger, violence and economic instability by supplying large volumes of the produce the world is crying out for.

"If you can't make money in this environment, you never will," Johan Willemse, an agricultural economist at the University of the Free State declared to the biennial congress of the Agricultural Business Chamber in Johannesburg this week.

Willemse cited the World Bank's expectation that food prices would remain high until at least 2015 and reminded farmers about the UN Food & Agricultural Organisation's (FAO) dire warnings of the effects of soaring world food prices. "The price paid by the poorest countries for grain imports can rise by 56%. In Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and 30 other countries categorised as crisis areas by the FAO, the grain import bill can be as much as 74% higher."

Though the image of farmer-heroes riding to the rescue on their tractors might seem a strange one to most South Africans, it is precisely the role Willemse urges them to adopt. He notes that SA has become a net importer of agricultural commodities to the tune of about R21,6bn and says local farmers could supply much of the produce being imported. "Reduced export earnings result in substantial economic losses in rural areas, which are becoming poorer, thereby reducing economic growth opportunities," he says.

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[Vogon_Glory]

1. Would a Hungry South Africa Depose Mugabe and ZANU-PF?

I am beginning to wonder if South Africa might be getting worried enough about not only its food supply but also about the food supplies of its neighbors. There may come a snapping point where South Africa may decide that in spite of fond memories of anti-Apartheid solidarity, their part of Africa can't afford Robert Mugabe's lunatic agricultural and food-aid policies any more and force him out either peacefully or at gun point.