By By Francois Wilken – Farmer and President of Free State Agriculture
Farmers are facing the biggest survival crisis yet. Regardless of what economists and other scholars want to pretend, farmers are in trouble: financially, emotionally and spiritually.
Farmers are price takers, on the input and output side and still pay the transport both ways.
It is time we look at the real factors that have led to the crisis in which producers now find themselves.
The drought does play a role, but we have had good rainfall years – why don’t farmers make more profit to be able to bridge the inevitable bad years?
Influencing factors
Over time, inputs just kept rising and farmers were manipulated into accepting it as a given. The problem is that input supplier companies internationally are moving further away from the farmer on the ground and from what our challenges are. Profits for shareholders are more important than the survival of the sector on which every country’s survival revolves.
The investment bubble is going to burst! Why does maize seed cost R300 000 per ton against a grain price of R4 000 per ton. The cost of agricultural equipment is totally exorbitant and unaffordable. The chief executive officer of a well-known company that manufactures green agricultural equipment in America earns R1 282 191 per day! That says it all.
Just to mention as an example, but there will be long explanations to justify it. Don’t underestimate our farmers’ intelligence! Livestock farmers’ inputs such as livestock medicine, equipment and concentrates are unaffordable and we can no longer farm profitably at current prices. Over time, our farmers have been encouraged to adopt better practices with conservation farming and so on to save fertilizer and chemicals. However, input suppliers have perfected the art of getting that savings into their own pockets.
Just as they channel profits in a good year into shareholders’ and directors’ pockets with the next season’s inputs.
Thus, Agbiz and Agri SA can question the negative figure for agriculture of 28%. To achieve what? Lowering it to 20% to give the impression that it’s not going so bad with agriculture? You do not know what is going on with farmers, because unfortunately you only focus on what happens after the farm gate.
Farmers are proud people who do not easily talk about how things are really going. I have the privilege of talking to many farmers and I can confirm: things are not going well! There is much uncertainty and despair.
Farmers are constantly overloaded with figures and statistics, forecasts and assumptions by so-called scholars. We are the people who take the punches when things go wrong. Everyone after the farm gate still gets salaries. Farmers have to hear all the time ‘stay positive, be resilient, adapt’… This, coming from people who do not understand our emotions and struggles for survival.
Farmers are optimistic and positive, otherwise we wouldn’t be farming. The natural environment we know – good and bad – risks are part of our existence, but to be exploited, we can no longer stand and remain silent.
The two poles
Farmers are often blamed for high food prices, but let me explain:
The earth has 2 poles, North and South. Consider the South Pole as the producers and the North Pole as the consumer.
The South Pole (producer) is a price taker, he does not determine any price, input or output. The North Pole (consumer) pays what he is asked. In the middle is a fat belly that determines. If the poles are destroyed, it spins off its axis and collapses.
It sounds controversial and I will be criticized, but it is time to wake up and face the consequences head on! Open your eyes and talk directly to the farmer. Beware of only going to the so-called big prominent farmers, there are many other farmers too and no one is going to be spared. Some may only survive a little longer – this is unsustainable for everyone.
There is much more to say, but let’s start here. I plead: if you are in the middle and feel angry or targeted, let’s talk. However, this is not just a South African problem, it is a global problem. Farmers are exploited and accused everywhere. Let’s try to fix it. You see what is happening in other countries…
