The Roots of Developing Agriculture in the South African Context

About the Book

“The Roots of Developing Agriculture in the South African Context” is meant to be a reader that addresses the current status and the possible future position of Developing Agriculture into perspective given the transformation it’s currently undergoing in South Africa. Much emphasis is deliberately placed on the experiences of the developing farmer and to a lesser extent that of the role-players of the industry. This means that the book is meant to focus on the actual proceedings of the industry, particularly at farmers’ level, as opposed to expounding on literature based findings or documented policies that do not reflect the actual state of affairs. The need of writing such a book came after realizing that the servants of this industry have varied perspectives in terms of the winning formula that would ensure its successful progression of refining the industry by uplifting emerging farmers of South Africa. An additional reason is that it’s the very same role players of the very same industry who dedicate much time in transferring technical information (that elaborates on the management of a farming business as well as how to produce agricultural products) to farmers, whilst continuously neglecting the need to identify and apply the principles that would ensure the attainment of the ultimate industrial goal of uplifting developing farmers so as to make positive contributions towards the local economy. As a result of the latter reason, the publishing of technical information has been one of the strongest points of South African agriculture. However, with all this information made available to farmers and various agriculturalists in abundance, the industry still experiences a low success rate in its attempt to transform previously disadvantaged farmers despite providing them with the relevant technical knowledge. This clearly shows the gap and the need of having such a book that will not only put the author’s perspective and suggested solutions into perspective, but will also consolidate some of those that are being shared in all sorts of formal and informal gatherings. The above passage details the central theme of the book, which will be sufficient to cover the content of the subject. Therefore the scope of readers will include everyone in the agricultural sector as well as those who have the interest in and are affected by agriculture and current affairs of South Africa.

About the Author

McGreggor Sibusiso Ntuli is a self-proclaimed fairly renowned agriculturalist (particularly known amongst developing farmers) who holds a BTECH degree in Rural Development and Extension in Agriculture. He attained this qualification through Tshwane University of Technology (TUT, the former Technicon of Pretoria), and is coupled together with extensive experience in providing his services to developing farmers of different commodities at different levels and to different areas of South Africa. Besides being an accredited assessor with AGRISETA, additional training and exposure to agriculture has been acquired from the Netherlands. The author’s vast knowledge of the industry and that of the topic has been acquired through years of experience as a professional agriculturalist by being involved in agricultural research, writing editorials for an agricultural monthly publication, training of farmers and the provision of farmer support services to developing farmers.