Stop ignoring the poor: Localize Rural Farming and Build an Inclusive Economy to fight poverty in South Africa post land restitution.

As it stands today, it has been 25 years since South Africa’s first democratic election, but black South Africans who were historically excluded from meaningful participation in the agricultural economy, still lack representation in the country’s “highly concentrated” food value chain.

We all know the norm, people living in rural areas with tons and tons of farming knowledge being the ones who end up poor, landless and illiterate...but that narrative can change... we have to pay respect to the locals by including them to participate in the economic opportunities which can be harnessed from land restitution. We can't always blame the government for the ills of the past, we need to build a bridge that will help the poor cross the road to accessing their fair share of economic wealth by tapping into the low hanging fruit available within their local communities, "harnessing the land and sharing the wealth of our economy with all those who work the land and live on it."

Localising rural farming, means developing ad investing in rural farmers to participate in the commercial markets and access the economy of the country so that they can be empowered to invest in their own communities and in assets that can build them wealth and a legacy for the future generation. the implementation of this has to be deliberate and requires political will and resilience from the current leadership in power that can drive it. It will require equity and not equality to be deliberately offered to the rural farmers for them to be empowered.

Some of the symptoms that show how the land restitution is poorly managed is the fact that many Communal Property Associations (CPA) that have received back the land are not well supported by government in managing the transition of transferring the land back to the communities, hence you will discover from the annual reports that above 75% of the CPAs are inactive and non complaint due to lack of skills, mentorship and proper governance controls. Giving back the land the rightful owners under land restitution is just but it is not enough to just offer it back to the people without any clear pathways to success and tools of empowerment to allow them access to knowledge, capital, and market access resources. There is a need for an eco-system to be developed around the issue of supporting and empowering rural locals to be able to access the tools and resources of success in building successful farming and agro-processing enterprises.