By Noko Mashilo
South Africa’s voice on poverty alleviation and food security found a global platform recently when Jimmy Gotjana, co-facilitator of the Civil 20 (C20) South Africa Working Group on Poverty Alleviation and Food Sustainability, participated in the New Era, New Ways Conference in Moscow, Russia.
Gotjana used the occasion to highlight the working group’s initial policy draft brief on small-scale farming in South Africa, a policy blueprint aimed at addressing the persistent challenges of market access, sustainability, and rural livelihoods.
His presentation positioned smallholder farmers at the centre of food system reforms, underscoring their critical role in tackling poverty and achieving inclusive economic growth.
Gotjana shared two core policies, empowerment and skills development to Vula Vala. “Small scale farmers should be provided with education training on sustainable farming practices, business management and market access. This will help them significantly enhance the productivity and profitability.
The second one is collaboration and support, without collaboration between government agencies, NGOs and private organizations, there will be a defeat of the whole purpose. We need to provide small scale farmers with necessary resources, infrastructure and market linkages. Organizations like Agriseta, need to help in creating opportunities for social, economic and employment growth through accessible education training in agricultural sector,” said Gotjana.
This president and national convenor of Alliance of NPO Networks (ANNET) that is an umbrella apex body of over 25 000 grassroots NPO sector in South Africa said there are many policies, but he chose these two. “They play a big role in making sure small-scale farmers are enhanced and as well as empowered. Some of these small-scale farmers are hopeless because the government did not assist them. Private sectors are falling short in advancing human development for small scale farmers,” said Gotjana.
Gotjana said small scale farmers from rural and township areas should pay attention to this initial policy draft brief. “This encapsulates the views, opinions as well as perspectives from ordinary people. Therefore, we must not leave anyone behind,” Gotjana explained.
He also said some of the barriers small scale farmers come across are human resources, element of finance, the issue of governance on how to run and contact their businesses. “You will find that some agencies visit these farmers, do assessment, site inspection and never come back again or share lesson learnt or come with proposal of correction from their findings,” he said.
Gotjana said through these policies, they hope to evoke a spirit of working together. “We want to bring in value proposition from other critical partners. Small scale farmers contribute a lot in the growth and development of economy in the countries. In our case, 70 to 80 percent of rural land is not utilised up to the fullest. We need to come with measures that will ensure that we make use of the land for the benefit. We must encourage roadshows, imbizo, government must speak with our people with the language that they understand. The policy is looking at some of these limitations,” he emphasised.
To ensure that farming becomes not just survivalists but viable and competitive business model for smallholders, Gotjana said they need to go back to basics where agriculture used to be part of the curriculum. “Agriculture must be one of the subjects in primary and high school. The good thing is that the policy proposal is promoting inclusivity and diversity. All sectors, women, youth, disability should be embraced,” he concluded.
