Zuma stance may harvest a food crisis

IN his state of the nation address, President Jacob Zuma said foreign land ownership was a threat to South Africa’s control of its own food security and therefore foreigners would not be allowed to own land. In addition, the government would cap all land ownership at 12 000ha, he said.

The only part of this that Omri van Zyl, the head of agribusiness at Deloitte, agrees with is that South Africa, as he spells out in a recent report, really is facing a looming food security crisis. But the only effect of Zuma’s comments, whether anything comes of them or not, will be to bring this crisis forward, he says.

Zuma’s remarks about foreign land ownership threatening our control over food security have no basis in fact and only add to, and illustrate, the policy uncertainty that bedevils the local agriculture sector and deters foreign investment. More

Source: www.bdlive.co.za