Agriculture Research Council pushes for farming as a long-term solution to battle joblessness

The Agriculture Research Council (ARC) has again pushed for farming as a long-term solution to battle joblessness.

This comes as the  agriculture sector calls on President Cyril Ramaphosa to take more action and pay less lip service to bring transformation to it, ahead of his  State of the Nation address at 7PM on Thursday through a Joint Sitting of Parliament at the Cape Town City Hall.

The ARC’s Doctor Lerato Matsaunyane says, “I think the president should really look at how agriculture can contribute towards food security and job security, while some work has been done to support black farmers, efforts must be ramped up and increased  – the agri processing master plan is also in play.”

Job security

Agri South Africa (AgriSA) has raised concerns that increasing wages will threaten job security in the country.

This, as the newly gazetted National Minimum Wage kicks in next month.

Executive Director of AgriSA, Christo van der Rheede says he hopes Ramaphosa will address the issues farmers are facing in his State of the Nation Address.

Van Rheede says, “We hope the president will address the challenges that the sector is facing from a cost perspective and from policy, but more-so we need to address the infrastructure challenges that the sector has, we have serious problems with dilapidated roads and exporting agricultural goods.”

Bad roads

The farming community in the Free State says it’s struggling with bad roads.

Free State Agriculture has called on government to urgently maintain critical infrastructure, saying good roads are vital for the growth of the farming sector.

Farmers say they are worried about the poor state of the roads in the province.

One farmer says, “This is not a road anymore, this is now a river, it is impossible to drive here when has rained, you need to wait.”

Another says, “Our roads are washing away, our roads are really bad and now it’s even worse because of poor maintenance of the roads and the poor water drainage pipes and all that kind of stuff, the water is flooding up against the roads. The roads have now become water-ways”.

Poor infrastructure

An economist at the Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein, Mgcinazwe Zwane, says poor infrastructure is hampering economic development.

This after motorists in the Free State said they hoped Ramaphosa will address the problem of poor road infrastructure in his State of the Nation Address.

They say they are concerned about the poor state of local and national roads in the province.

Zwane says the infrastructure development backlog is a major concern.

He says, “So there was supposed to have been feasible study that was undertaken to ensure that as the population increase, how do we manage the population volume into the cities? Currently now we are having a backlog of the infrastructure, and that is hampering in terms of growth and development economically because all the heavy trucks that cross around Bloemfontein and especially we are in the centre of the republic.”

“ Now nobody would like to invest in the place whereby you’ll have to incur other costs and expenses in terms of delivery. So as a result it affects economically and the development and growth of our country,” Zwane adds.

VIDEO: Free State motorists want poor roads fixed:
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Additional reporting by Konelo Lekhafola.