LETTER: Is ANC handing farmers a lemon?

On a trip to the UK last year I travelled via France and spent some time south of Toulouse. I was between two large farm fields at harvest time. For a city slicker like me it was fascinating to be up close and personal with modern farming machinery and witness their ability to clear a whole field in one day and dispatch the produce to become sunflower oil and cornflakes.

Your articles about lemons exported to China and job losses in agriculture raise important question about the farming sector in SA. (“Squeeze is on SA lemon juice exporters after US sees possible dumping”, February 15; “SA exports first batch of produce to China under revamped lemon protocol”, February 17; and “Study finds ways to reverse job losses in agriculture”, February 17).

Some readers may be following James Wong’s series Follow the Food on the BBC, which explains just how high tech modern food production is, and how to get more food out of fewer resources, whereas in SA farming seems to be fixated on creating jobs at the same time as the rest of the world is doing the reverse.

Is the ANC intent on making a new generation of agrarian peasants or in building a modern industry able to compete on the world market?

Bernard Benson
Parklands

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