Allow me to speak on behalf of struggling farmers who are weighed down by debt pressures while dutifully
doing a thankless job of responding to the country’s food security. Farmers are going through hard times
partly because of a Department which appears to have forgotten it’s constitutional mandate to support
the sector. The burden of high costs of production has translated into high food prices, forcing many
families to go to bed hungry.

Like everything else that has gone wrong in South Africa, the extremely difficult operating environment in
the farming sector must be traced to the ANC government’s lack of care for farmers. The uncaring ANC
government has left commercial and small holder farmers to fend for themselves.

Full Speech Attached