Black farmers’ programme undergoing a clean-out

The multi-million-rand Black Producers Commercialisation Programme’s (BPCP) blended finance facility was halted temporarily earlier this year to allow for a clean-out of non-target individuals who were aiming to abuse the programme for personal benefit. This was according to the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development’s (agriculture department) director general, Mike Mlengana, who was also behind the establishment of the BPCP.

Mlengana told Farmer’s Weekly that he had originally told his senior officials to ensure that only genuine, independent, small-scale black farmers be identified and encouraged to apply for BPCP grants and loans for the purpose of helping them on the road to becoming larger-scale commercial farmers. However, only months after the October 2018 applications commencement date, he learned that government and Land Bank officials, together with non-target private individuals, were applying for funding from the programme that was being managed by the Land Bank.

“I was really upset to learn about this. Corruption is in the blood of government. I immediately put a temporary stop to the programme to allow for illegitimate applicants to be found and dismissed. I will not have people in government benefitting from taxpayers’ money that is intended for genuine farmers,” he said. Mlengana said he had subsequently tasked agronomists to personally visit and assess the operations of small-scale black farmers who had applied for BPCP blended finance, to confirm whether or not each farmer was a legitimate potential beneficiary of the programme.

The director general said that the BPCP aimed to identify and support 450 small-scale black farmers nationwide over the next five years with grants from the agriculture department and soft loans from the Land Bank. Only applicants with confirmed supply agreements with buyers, including government, would be considered for this support. – Lloyd Phillips