Dear Mr Montwedi,

I am writing to you as a member of the South African Organic Sector Organisation (SAOSO) who would like to comment on the response made by the Minister of Agriculture to your question (NW1393) on the 8 June, 2022. As the mandated by government sector body who has engaged with the Dept of Agriculture over the years, and who has been pushing for the adoption of the Draft Organic Policy since 2009, we must correct some misunderstandings that are evident.
In response to your question about whether the Department supports organic farming, it does not. In the words of Busi Mgangxela, a farmer in the Eastern Cape and a member of SAOSO: “Yes an organic farmer may apply for that but the practicality of the program does not suit the organic farmer” and that “it is tailor made for monocultures” which organic farming is not.
The growth of organic farming in South Africa is ‘slowed down’ by the absence of an enabling policy environment for organic farmers, the majority of whom are smallholder farmers. Factors attributed by the Minister of “lower yields compared to products from other systems, pest and disease control as well as market access” are a complete fallacy and based on the untrue narrative recited by agribusiness who have the ear of our Government. In fact, the opposite is true, as has been shown by South African research at Nelson Mandela University and elsewhere. Smallholder organic farmers can produce far more profitably without expensive chemical inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides. If the Minister has the “perception that organic products are for high-income groups and the rich”, then someone needs to make her perceive differently. The fact is that certain types of agriculture are harming our people. GMO technology coupled with its reliance on herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers are poisoning our soils, river ways, environment and people.
We have the solution to bringing emergent farmers into the market through Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) – a cost effective second party certification process that can guarantee that a product is produced organically by groups of farmers who aggregate healthy, nutritious food for everyone, not only the rich. This right is embedded in our Constitution.
I am not sure how beneficial the non-financial support is that DALRRD had been providing over the years with respect to “advice on best practices regarding organic farming,” as there are few in our Government who understand the basic construct of organic farming – it being all about the soil – and no one has reached out to SAOSO to collaborate on a programme of support for farmers wishing to farm sustainably.
Agri-business, through CropLife, have captured our food system from seed to plate and we must reclaim our rights to grow food as our ancestors did. It is known that smallholder farmers throughout the world produce 70% of the global food that we eat.
Please keep this item on the agenda. It is important.
Colleen Anderson
(Secretariat)
SAOSO