AGRICULTURE NEWS - The final report by the Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture, which was recently published for public comment and was intended to guide the future dialogue around land reform in South Africa, has not been met with overwhelming support from organisations representing commercial farmers and agribusinesses.

Dan Kriek, one of the members of the advisory panel and president of Agri SA, and fellow panel member Nick Serfontein, a commercial farmer and chairperson of the Sernick Group, published an alternative report on the same day as the panel’s report was published.

Their report explained in detail the aspects of the panel report they supported, and those on which they failed to reach agreement.

One of the main points of contention has been the panel’s support to amend Section 25 of the Constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation.

The panel report proposed that the Expropriation Bill of 2019 be finalised, and that expropriation without compensation be “understood [as] one of several targeted land acquisition strategies”.

Read the full article here on the Caxton publication, Farmer's Weekly.