Agriculture is the backbone of SA’s food security, a vital driver of exports and the cornerstone of rural livelihoods. In the Western Cape alone, farming and agri-processing sustain more than 300,000 jobs.
However, the future of this sector does not depend only on 40,000 established producers. It rests on whether the 284,000 small producers with potential to grow — often from historically disadvantaged backgrounds — are given the tools to succeed.
For decades national policies have promised transformation through land reform. Yet nine out of 10 land reform projects fail, leaving farmers without support, markets or the means to grow. By contrast, the Western Cape has achieved an 83% success rate among land reform farmers who receive post-settlement support.
The difference lies in execution; farmers need the agility that a decentralised and partnership-driven approach offers, not the suffocation of centralisation seen in other provinces.
SA’s history of dispossession still casts a shadow. Without secure title deeds, emerging farmers cannot offer collateral, attract investment or plan for long-term crops like orchards. Banks cannot extend credit to those whose tenure is uncertain.
— SA cannot afford another three decades of failure. Emerging farmers are not asking for handouts. They are asking for secure title deeds to unlock credit and investment.
Instead, farmers are forced into short-term survival, dependent on small grants that entrench poverty rather than foster growth. Until the government recognises that title deeds are not a bureaucratic formality but the foundation of prosperity, emerging farmers will remain trapped.
The Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (Casp), once intended to give small farmers a leg up, has become a symbol of bureaucracy. Since its reclassification in line with the National Treasury’s Public Finance Management Act regulations — from a schedule 4 to a schedule 5 grant — Casp has been weakened.
What was once a flexible support mechanism dispersed by provinces is now a rigid, centralised system. Funds are released only after business plans, submitted a year in advance, are approved. This structure is completely out of step with agriculture, where conditions shift quickly and timing is everything.
Devastating impact
The impact of the National Treasury’s reclassification is devastating in a province like the Western Cape, where winter rainfall determines planting. Support often arrives a month or two too late, long after farmers have started preparing the land to plant. Worse still, Casp offers no direct cash. It only pays third-party providers for pre-approved goods and services, leaving farmers powerless to act when conditions change, such as buying seeds before rain.
By the time the paperwork clears, the opportunity has passed, and harvests suffer. Agriculture is about timing, and Casp in its current form locks farmers into rigidity that dictates outcomes from above. It is centralised planning at its worst — an echo of failed command economies where ideology trumped reality. Farmers must be empowered to act quickly in response to soil, weather and markets.
Floods and droughts have already cost the Western Cape billions and destroyed 30,000 jobs. Emerging farmers, hamstrung by insecure tenure and Casp’s inflexibility, are least able to adapt. They cannot install irrigation without ownership. They cannot redirect funds when crops fail. The very system meant to support them keeps them vulnerable.
Gaps in technical knowledge, business skills
Emerging farmers also face gaps in technical knowledge and business skills. Without training in cash flow management, compliance and marketing, many cannot transition from informal trade to formal markets. In the Western Cape, however, commodity-based programmes, market access initiatives and skilled extension officers provide the tailored support that helps farmers succeed.
The Western Cape’s commodity approach brings government, industry and farmers together, tailoring support to each sector rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all model. Farmers receive mentoring, training and direct market access aligned with real needs. Similarly, the blended finance scheme, developed with banks, combines grants with private loans, lowering risk while opening access to capital.
These initiatives succeed because they are decentralised, practical and responsive to conditions on the ground. Yet their impact is constrained by the lack of alignment with national grant mechanisms. If grant support were synchronised with blended finance, outcomes would be far greater.
SA cannot afford another three decades of failure. Emerging farmers are not asking for handouts. They are asking for secure title deeds to unlock credit and investment. They are asking for a reformed Casp that empowers provinces and restores flexibility. They are asking for commodity partnerships that embed mentorship and market access as standard support, and they are asking for proactive climate adaptation tools to build resilience before disasters strike.
The Western Cape has shown that success in land reform is not about hectares transferred but about building viable, sustainable businesses. The ANC’s centralised, delayed and rigid model has failed. The choice is clear: either continue with the failed policy or adopt the proven, partnership-driven path. Our farmers, our food security and our future depend on choosing the latter.
• Masipa, a member of the Western Cape parliament, is the DA provincial spokesperson on agriculture, economic development & tourism.
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