Incentivise The Private Sector To Invest In Agriculture

While large-scale infrastructure investment is needed to support economic growth in South Africa, Prof Ferdi Meyer and Dr Tracy Davids of the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy say that by providing incentives for the private sector to invest in initiatives such as farmer development, government could achieve more without having to increase its spending much.

In June 2020, the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, announced a zero-based budgeting approach. Although more specific details will have to be provided from National Treasury about how exactly this approach will be implemented, the basic principle seems to be that government departments will in future not be able to submit a pre-existing budget with some inflationary adjustments, but instead have to start off from a zero base and justify any expenditure items.

Although it still has to be seen if this approach can be effectively implemented, the principle of a zero-based approach is undoubtedly the correct point of departure for a post-COVID-19 economic recovery phase.

The prioritisation of public investments and policies have to be carefully considered to ensure maximum impact on inclusive growth and agricultural transformation that is so desperately required. Idle and unproductive resources have to be brought back into production to contribute positively to the economy.

In the case of agriculture, a good example is the vast tracks of state land that are underutilised, and irrigation schemes that are not operational, due to lack of maintenance.

During a prioritisation process, four basic preconditions can be considered that will deliver longterm sustainable transformational growth in the agriculture sector in a post-COVID-19 economy.

All of them are based on the premise that incentives must be created for the private sector to invest and partner with government, in order to provide supplementary funding to critical initiatives.