We typically don’t comment much on budget vote speeches. Still, the Presidency’s Budget Vote speech, delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday, carried vital messages for the long-term growth of South Africa’s agriculture.
The president said: “Access to productive land is essential to grow our agricultural output further, create jobs and lift people out of poverty. Over time, the government has acquired around 2.5 million hectares of land under the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy
programme.
“This land has generally been leased to beneficiaries on a short-term basis, which limits their ability to borrow money, invest in the land, grow agricultural production and contribute to the rural economy.”
We concur with the message and believe that the lack of title deeds has been the major constraint to the progress of inclusive growth in agriculture.
With the president signalling the start of the title deeds release process, we might start to see some positive action to grow the sector. Essentially, the step South Africa is taking is fundamental to achieving the goals that have long been outlined in Chapter Six of the National Development Plan and thereafter, in the Agriculture and Agro-processing Master Plan.
Both documents indicate the possibility of growing the sector and creating new jobs.
In fact, the National Development Plan states that the sector and its value chain have the potential to create close to a million new jobs. Part of the prerequisites for the jobs is strengthening land rights and allocating government land to deserving beneficiaries.
Over time, South Africa’s primary agriculture sector delivered jobs, from 718 000 at the end of 2012, when the National Development Plan was published, to 960 000 in the first quarter of 2026.
Part of the constraints on job gains had been the slow progress in releasing land with title deeds.
The land will be primarily used for commercial farming. This means financing and training of the new beneficiaries are among the considerations that will be reflected when the minister of land reform and rural development releases the details of the process in the coming weeks and months.
Overall, agriculture remains one of the sectors of our economy with potential for growth and job creation. The president’s important step to strengthen land rights is key to realising the vision and supporting the rural economies. Importantly, this is also a crucial signal that property rights are intact in South Africa and investment in farming is protected.
- Sihlobo is the presidential envoy on agriculture and land. He is also the chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa and a senior research fellow in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University.
- We typically don’t comment much on budget vote speeches.
- Still, the Presidency’s Budget Vote speech, delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday, carried vital messages for the long-term growth of South Africa’s agriculture.
- The president said: “Access to productive land is essential to grow our agricultural output further, create jobs and lift people out of poverty.
- Over time, the government has acquired around 2.5 million hectares of land under the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy programme.
- “This land has generally been leased to beneficiaries on a short-term basis, which limits their ability to borrow money, invest in the land, grow agricultural production and contribute to the rural economy.” We concur with the message and believe that the lack of title deeds has been the major constraint to the progress of inclusive growth in agriculture.
