Minister: farmers mustn't remain 'emerging smallholder' forever

"We don't want our farmers to remain 'emerging' or 'smallholder' farmers forever," she said, adding that South Africa needs small farmers to take part in the country's economy and its export businesses, and "to also make money just like commercial farmers."

Current problems in the agriculture sector included a shrinking commercial farmer community, inadequate assistance to smallholder farmers, increasingly rising food prices, and climate change. Other constraints that small farmers faced related to lack of access to land and poor infrastructure, as sub-standard physical and institutional infrastructure, like proper roads, limited their expansion.

"We simply cannot only rely on commercial farmers to feed a country of 50 million people and still provide to the export market," Joemat-Pettersson said. South Africa has 230 000 land reform beneficiaries and emerging farmers, and 35 000 commercial farmers, Independent Online reports.

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