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Programme Director
Mr Bully Botma, Chairman of Grain SA and Mrs Botma
Mr Steve Shone, Grain SA's General Manager, and his wife
Mr Monwabisi Fandeso, Managing director of Land Bank and Mrs Fandeso
Distinguished Guests

It is most pleasing to be afforded the opportunity to add my voice in honouring grain farmers and scientists of our country during their hour of glory. It is indeed befitting to do so because these are the people who take care of our food basket. We literally depend on them for our daily bread. It is also heartening to lend a hand at this ceremony which is held two days after the World Food day whose objective is to raise awareness of world hunger and to improve our chances to find a solution that will ensure food security for all.

Mr Botma, this award ceremony could not have come at a better time. As we are about to honour those individuals who excelled in grain production in this country, Southern African region is collapsing under a huge pressure of shortage of food aggravated by soaring food prices. There are currently 13 million people in the SADC countries that are subjected to crippling hunger.

It is for this reason that grain farmers in any nation play a very important role in feeding the nation and also bolstering the economy of the region. The most important grain, which is our staple food, is maize. We are however concerned as we learn from analysts that as other crops earn more on the export market, grain farmers will tend to reduce acreage for maize cultivation in favour of export crops. We are deeply concerned that the maize price in the domestic market tends to be influenced by the price it fetches on the export market. These factors have the effect of raising the price of maize to the levels, which many of our people cannot afford.

It is precisely for these reasons and others that, today the need for food security has become more critical than ever before because we are now confronted by a very different set of problems. Since the past few weeks, the nation's food security has been threatened by escalating food prices. Among the main causes for this are; the rapid depreciation of rand; oil price, regional food shortage and lack of competition in the supply chain beyond the farm gate. To alleviate the impact of high food prices on the lives of all South Africans, especially the poor, the Government has decided on a mix of interventions. It is critical that these measures are targeted at the problem of high food prices and that they are effective and sustainable. Government will closely monitor their impact to mitigate against possible unintended consequences.

In the immediate to short term basis, the Government, in partnership with private sector, specifically Premier Foods and Metro Cash and Carry has ensured a targeted programme to provide a non-branded 12.5 kg maize meal bag to be sold at a subsidies price of R25.99.

In a medium to long term basis, investigations are being conducted on the re-establishment of Strategic Grain Reserves which would act as buffer stocks in times food crises. A food monitoring committee that will investigate competition in the food supply chain will be operational by the end of the year. Discussions are underway to make accommodate, in the committee, primary producer organizations like Grain SA.

Programme Director, we cannot successfully talk about the emotive and sensitive issue of food production and affordability in this country and avoid the issue of land reform. Any discussion around land in this country cannot overlook the history of land reform, which starts, with the first wars of resistance against colonial conquest. The African resistance sought to regain LAND, which constituted the most essential basis for the traditional social systems of African Communalism from which derived their political and economic autonomy. The land Act of 1913 was a crowning statutory instrument of dispossession, which left Africans, who constituted 75% of the population with only about 13% of the land area.

Therefore given the history of wars of dispossession and expropriation of the land by 'treaty' and by 'statute', the question of land and land reform in South Africa is not merely an exercise in designing appropriate rural development strategy and policies for post apartheid South Africa but a matter of survival. However we should not narrow down the meaning of land to agrarian perspective. We should extend it to its ultimate all-embracing African interpretation because it perceives land as the provider of dwelling, shelter, livelihood, security and indeed life itself - everything!!

But for us all, the people of this country, it has much wider and deeper significance in that land constitutes the territorial basis for our relations with the rest of the world as One Nation. The Government therefore strives for an equitable land reform policy where we are all winners. We are striving for a smooth transition from the painful past to a bright and happy future of all the people of our country. This Government is committed to dealing with the land issue in a responsible and structured way. It is for this reason that we outlawed illegal occupation of land and still promote the 'willing buyer, willing seller' principle.

To increase the entrance of the previously disadvantaged into commercial farming, this Government introduced the Land Reform for Agricultural Development (LRAD). What ever it takes we will avoid the temptation of forcefully removing people from their properties - we know the consequences very well.

It is in this context that Government calls on Institutions like Grain SA to join hands to assist black farmers to accomplish their maximal potential. The Free State Government is of the opinion that Grain SA can play a role in the following areas, inter alia:
* To build capacity among new grain farmers by engaging professional support in technology development and transfer
* To insure that information and knowledge on all aspects of grain production become easier accessible and customized in accordance with the need of new farmers.
* To participate in the planning and design of crop farming projects

Herewith some of the problems which, according to the Department of Land Affairs, Free State Office, aspirant grain farmers are faced with:

* Aspirant farmers find it very difficult to acquire prime arable land in the Bothaville, Hoopstad and Viljoenskroon areas. Very few farms make it to the open market in these areas, those farms that end up on the open market are extremely expensive, which renders the available land grants insufficient to acquire land and the necessary farm machinery.

* Cases were reported where farmers have looted farms just before the new owners could take occupation.

* Those who already own land find it difficult to obtain production capital from finance institutions

* A serious lack of farm management skills

Once again, the role of agricultural research cannot be over-emphasised if all these issues of land reform and food security should be successfully dealt with. Research in agriculture should not only be about cultivating the soil and rearing animals, it has also to take account human relations in the countryside because these cannot simply be discounted.

Modern commercial agricultural industry will, for a long time to come, live side by side with the traditional system of African communalism. Research will have to take this rural dualism into account and look into how a convergence process (toenadering) could develop between the two systems.

At the time when we talk about sustainable development, we look upon our researchers to lead and point us in right direction. There are ongoing debates on bio-technology as well as organic farming, we urgently need clear answers to these subjects. For this reason, we are committed as Government to support agricultural research and also facilitate access to resources and international best practices.

In conclusion, I would like to congratulate all the individuals who will receive awards tonight and salute them individually and collectively by landing a hand in pushing back the frontiers of poverty as we broaden access to better life for all.

I THANK YOU!

Issued by the Office of the Premier, Free State