Historically, black farmers have always been associated with subsistence farming, meaning farming to provide food for their families.

This meant that they farmed to survive and not to earn a living.

However, with the advent of democracy, the government introduced new laws to assist black farmers by putting in place policies that stimulate agrarian transformation to encourage black subsistence farmers to venture into commercial farming, standing them in good stead for the future.

Now Africa is talking about the Africa continental free-trade area and by nurturing our smallholder farmers, in the long run they will benefit from the spin-offs that will emerge in the development of regional agricultural value chains.

The recent launch of a farmer production support unit by the minister of agriculture, land reform and rural development Thoko Didiza at Sokhulumi, outside Bronkhorstspruit, is aimed at providing a one-stop shop of support to smallholder farmers within a 30km radius by giving them access to farming resources like machinery, tractors, cold storage facilities and other equipment.

As a start, minister Didiza gave the smallholder farmers in Sokhulumi farming inputs and equipment worth more than R17m. For me, a communal equipment centre like an FPSU is a prudent model not only for individual farmers to access equipment and machinery but this model of sharing equipment will influence a sense of togetherness and inclusivity by grassroots and commercial farmers in synergising their efforts in an endeavour to fast-track success in their farming trajectory.

This practice is entrenched in the hallmarks of the Sotho practice of letsema, meaning that success, like synergy, is the sum of all inputs.

Themba Mzula Hleko, Rosslyn Gardens, Pretoria