Mentorship Alliance between South African Farmers: Implication for Sustainable Agriculture Sector Reform

Abstract

South Africa's agricultural sector is characterized by a skewed participation of the population. There are vastly white commercial farmers and black subsistence farmers. This is attributed to the past government's intervention in the economy, which lead to exclusion of and discrimination against the blacks regarding access to land. The new government is committed to redressing this imbalance through agricultural reform and development strategies namely land, agrarian, trade and market reforms. One of the government's primary policy thrusts is to provide access to agricultural land for people not adequately represented in the agricultural sector. However, the government lacks sufficient resources to provide land and support services to the farmers been settled. This study is motivated by the insights to explore the complementarities of white established commercial farmers on one hand and the black newly emerging farmers' characteristics and the need for a framework within which the stakeholders can contribute to the success of the reforms. The study contributes to the discussion regarding mentorship between these farm types, by addressing an identified knowledge gap with respect to the objective, implementation and reward for mentorship. Mentorship alliance that can transform the South Africa's agricultural sector into a more efficient and competitive sector and enhance the success of South African economic reforms, is conceptualized. The mentorship is expected to be loosely structured, without the complicated legal and contractual processes involved in corporate business alliances. However, it is hoped that the alliance would be a precursor for highly committed joint ventures in the industry.E6, O1, Q15, P0, L12, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management,