Land reform farms "in trouble"

The government has spent more than R6bn buying land for emerging farmers and more than half the farms purchased have either failed or are "declining", says Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti. (from News24)

In a written reply to a parliamentary question, tabled on Monday, he said his department had acquired 2 864 farms across all nine provinces for emerging farmers.

"[A total of] 29% of the 1 250 LRAD (Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development] projects reviewed have failed, and a further 22% are declining.

"Thus, 362 of the 1 250 farms are unproductive and a further 275 could possibly become unproductive if no agricultural support is received," he said.

In addition, the department had recently completed asset verification on its Pro-Active Land Acquisition Strategy farms.

"Approximately 127 farms need immediate agricultural intervention... to ensure that the land in question does not become unproductive," Nkwinti said.

Among reasons identified for the farm failures were insufficient agricultural support, conflict among beneficiary groups, and limited LRAD grants.

The department - which spent R6.25bn acquiring the farms - was developing a programme to give the necessary support to struggling farmers, he said.