Our farmers in the new landscape
[{“type”:”text”,”content”:”La Marque interprets how Kwanalu responds to the changing landscape that we currently operate in. She gives a provincial perspective on how their organisation deals with these issues.nnBack in 1997, Kwanalu amalgamated with all farmers in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), which was a real visionary approach that their farmers at that time undertook. Their constitution is similar to Agri SAu2019s. During the past few years Kwanalu realised that they had to evolve along with the changed landscape, so they formed a board of seven people, who are vested with the affairs of the union.nnLa Marque further explains that they are aware that the voice of the farmer, a member at local level, is critical and is what they need in their structure. Kwanalu then created an advisory council which is vested with proving the strategic direction, the industry specific knowledge, agricultural expertise and helps illustrate their aims and objectives. Their constitution is relatively unique in the fact that they provide for equal representation to their members. Within the advisory council is one black farmer and one white farmer from every district in KZN and all commodities that are represented in the advisory council as well. Additionally, this gives a holistic and inclusive approach when they deal with issues as a province.nnKwanalu has several priorities dedicated to issues around social, transformation and economic growth. Their operating environment has changed significantly over the past few years. As an organisation they continually ask themselves, how do they inform their members and how do their members participate in that environment?nnu201cThat ministrative compliance when we look at Covid-19, the compliance that our members had to meet and follow, has been so stringent and has placed an extensive burden on them. That environment should be addressed, and we have to determine how to make it easier for our members in order for them to produce the food for this country.u201d nnThe protection of property and land rights is a very critical issue that Kwanalu is dealing with. They have appointed a full-time person to run their land desk, whose responsibilities are to facilitate and assist members in identifying and formulating solutions relating to land reform. Kwanaluu2019s development desk has programmes and implementation strategies that they use to assist soil scale communal farmers. KZN has 2.9 million hectares of communal land, which is nearly 50% of the land in the province. So, there is a huge amount of opportunity to participate in that space.”,”position”:0,”id”:”t1gHX4LhRLMZZsmr”}]