Community development

If the agricultural potential in Southern Africa is to be realized, there will be additional indirect benefits for rural communities. These include increases in employment and wage income for on- and off-farm agricultural workers which will boost local purchasing power resulting in stimulation of non-agricultural enterprise. The end result will see rural communities having lower cost access to basics such as electricity and clean water with food security and health status significantly improving as incomes increase.

The growth of ZA2 Agri`s operations in Southern Africa will have major direct and indirect benefits, for a broad section of the population within our host communities. The main direct benefits include higher and more predictable incomes for farmers and others involved in the agriculture supply chain, increased employment opportunities for on-farm and off-farm work, capital income generated from investment and fiscal revenue accruing to government. The indirect benefits include the induced growth in other sectors such services, retail etc, which generate a multiplier effect, further boosting economic growth.

Growth of agricultural production will stimulate, and be supported by, simultaneous growth of agribusinesses along the whole value chain. This is  evident from other parts of the world  that show  that to achieve rapid growth in agricultural production there is a need for supportive investments elsewhere in the value chain, ie in transport services, input supply, development of value-added processing, wholesale markets, marketing services, agricultural credit and other financial services. ZA2 Agri sees major potential for the generation of significant employment and incomes within the value chains as agricultural production grows over time.