‘Bureaucracy inflates cost of farming in SA’ :: Namibia Internet Gateway cc ::

Articles: ‘Bureaucracy inflates cost of farming in SA’

Posted by admin on Friday, March 17, 2006 - 07:43 AM

SENIOR bureaucrats were increasing the cost of doing business in southern Africa’s agricultural sector and delaying regional integration of agricultural trade, the president of the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions, Ajay Vashee, said yesterday.
Neels Blom

He spoke during the annual general meeting of the development body in Brits, North West. Agriculture in most developing economies is under threat as globalisation demands greater competitiveness from a largely inadequate farming infrastructure. SA’s own push to boost growth to 6% by 2014 is largely dependent on overcoming barriers such as infrastructure and a shortage of trained workers. Although formal agriculture contributes only 3% to SA’s gross domestic product, it employs 940000 workers, each with an average of six dependants. “Negotiators at the World Trade Organisation are not interested in our bad roads and poor irrigation systems, though they are nominally committed to the Uruguay Round and the Doha agendas,” said Vashee. “It is up to the private sector to deal with supply side constraints, but to do that we need the public sector to do three things: build the infrastructure we need; institute reforms; and remove unnecessary bureaucracy,” he said. To counter the growing threat to agricultural production from global warming and climate change, the region needed an integrated effort from the private and public sectors if the industry was to survive, said Vashee. “The irony is that the political will exists to remove the constraints to trade — within the region and with the world — but it doesn’t seem to penetrate below ministerial level,” he said. “We’re told after every (regional) summit that the political will exists. But farmers’ lorries are stuck at border posts for days, while customs and excise demand endless paperwork. And we can’t get roads or irrigation schemes built.” Vashee conceded that some delays were understandable. “Several countries depend on the (customs and excise) revenue.” The confederation is a civil-society body comprising the national farming unions of Madagascar, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and SA. Its members have no political affiliation. Confederation CEO Ishmael Sunga said the organisation was mobilising membership from other southern African countries “at a time when farmers are being challenged to intensify efforts to avert the critical food crisis facing the region”.

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