The official launch of the much-awaited Producer/Farmer Register (PFR) marks the greatest milestone achieved by the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development.

The PFR is a statistical data collection on commercial and smallholder farmers, in which information on geographical and demography of farms and farmers, production activities as well as infrastructure is collected in SA.

It is worth noting that the PFR is the first-ever national register to be witnessed since the dawn of democracy in the country.

Not shying away that the department have managed to reach out all categories of farmers with its interventions for many years with the help of agricultural extension officers and provincial department; such tool as PFR will further help the department to track food producers, and assess the overall performance of farmers in terms of growth and decline.

The tool will also help in planning for, among others, the preservation of food security, eradication of hunger, to know the geographical location of farmers as well as for purposes of monitoring the impact of departmental interventions.

Mphahlela M Rammutla, Pretoria