With its people instructed to remain in their homes, and much of the economy effectively shut down, South Africa can be grateful that food is in the main still being delivered to supermarkets and grocery stores. Our food supplies remain intact in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Broadly so, at any rate. South Africa is fortunate in the extreme to have a resilient domestic farming economy. In production terms, the country can largely supply its own needs. It is a bedrock asset that will help society through the current disaster.
As the meme goes, if you ate today, thank a farmer.
But farming is itself under strain. In navigating South Africa’s perilous present, this is ignored at our peril.
Covid-19 hit South Africa as the farming community was reeling from a succession of blows. A long-lasting drought was the most obvious one. Outbreaks of disease are another. Millions of birds died or were culled in an outbreak of avian flu in 2017 and 2018. Last year, livestock auctions were suspended as a result of a foot-and-mouth outbreak. The damage was profound.
Farming contends with enormous losses to crime, in the theft of livestock, crops and infrastructure, not to mention the threat of violence. A study by Agri-SA found that the monetary cost of crime in 2017 was some R7.7 billion.
On top of this, great anxiety and concern (with some evidence of a fall-off in investment) have been generated by the ANC’s push for a policy of expropriation without compensation, along with a good deal of threatening, provocative rhetoric.
All of which make for a tough farming environment. But for those whose food is seen primarily from the perspective of a supermarket aisle, it is a largely unknown environment.
While farms are allowed – indeed, expected – to continue to function, the disease is taking its toll. Contrary to a perception in some quarters, farming is not a lucrative industry. Agricultural economist Wandile Sihlobo remarks that global demand and supply chains stand to be disrupted. This will hit the export markets, knocking a critical source of revenue both for the country and for individual producers. This would in turn have implications for the financial health of the farming economy, not least the ability of farmers to service debt of R168 billion (as of 2018).
Meanwhile, keeping farms operating under the lockdown is a daily struggle. While farms may be for the most part removed from the urban foci of the epidemic (at least for now), precautionary measures come with costs.
Farmers who spoke to the IRR pointed to the challenges associated with managing the costs and logistics of staffing under these conditions. Where a workforce consists of both those living on-farm and off-farm, it may be necessary to have the two groups operating in separate shifts.
Where staff must commute to work, the costs of transport have escalated steeply. Restrictions on the number of passengers that minibus taxis may transport have caused some operators to cease operating or to raise their fares. One farmer spoke of these costs nearly doubling. Alternatively, farming operations must provide transport themselves. Either way, it places an enormous additional cost on them.
Dr Jack Armour of Free State Agriculture remarks on this: ‘The cost of emergency health regulation, although essential, is very expensive.’
’There is a lot of pressure on our farmers,’ adds Robert Davel, CEO of Mpumalanga Agriculture. ‘On the one hand, there are groups and individuals who really admire the effort from the agricultural sector. On the other hand, you will find those who are watching the sector with eagle eyes for mistakes in terms of complying with the published regulations.’
Besides, there is limited clarity as to the implications of infection. Farmers expressed frustration both at the measures taken on the disease in rural South Africa, and at the lack of clarity as to what is to be done in the event of infection (the IRR was unable to establish this either). As one put it: ‘There has been no education in our area apart from the work we’ve done with our staff. A few are terrified. Farmers are most stressed about what will happen if they have a coronavirus-positive employee. Will we be closed down? If a nurse gets ill, I presume they don’t close the hospital? Are essential services allowed to continue operating?’
Dr Requier Wait at Agri SA adds to this. ‘Besides the purely financial costs,’ he said, ‘we have also seen huge social costs with farmers being very tense and stressed about the health and safety issues for themselves, their workers and their own families.’
Meanwhile, the sudden reconfiguration of demand in the economy – the closing down of non-essential businesses, restaurants and the tourist trades – has come with its own set of difficulties. ‘At the retail end,’ says one farmer, ‘that’s where we get hurt.’
High levels of demand for foodstuffs are offset by pricing agreements with retailers and wholesalers, as well as elevated input costs that come with more shifts, overtime and the logistics of night-time delivery. (There have also been instances of police officers stopping delivery vehicles, apparently not understanding that these are an essential part of the food-supply chain.) For some farming operations, this crisis could mean a significant loss.
Hanging over all this is the spectre of the country’s politics. The imposition of price controls may well be welcomed by struggling consumers, but they come without recognition of the costs incurred in producing the items that make their way to supermarket shelves. That these are out of sight of the consumer is perhaps understandable – but that they evidently receive scant consideration from policymakers is a cause for concern.
More than this, there is a sense that farmers are in the sights of the populist edge of our politics. The Economic Freedom Fighters have pledged to shut down businesses that fail to adhere to the regulations, and one farmer said that this ‘scares’ retailers and is also a worry for farmers themselves. As farmers have been stigmatised in political discourse, this is not only a real concern, but a reasonable one.
South Africa has, at a minimum, two weeks of lockdown left. Whatever happens beyond that, economic rehabilitation will be difficult. Part of it might fruitfully be informed by recognition of the importance of a farming economy, and of the difficulties of farming successfully.
Perhaps we might also alter that meme: If you want to eat, value your farming economy.
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