Educate before redistributing land.

With reference to "Will the 'harsh way' resolve it?" (The Star, June 22). One of the primary needs of the people of this country is education.

Before hotheaded calls for land expropriation are considered, the nation needs to take a cold hard look at that other primary need - food.

Giving someone a farm he cannot exploit (and presumably will not be allowed to sell) does not qualify as redistribution of wealth.

The recipient will become wealthy only by producing crop after crop.

In March last year, newspapers were reporting that food security and economic growth were being undermined by the collapse of more than 90 percent of the farms that the government had bought for restitution or redistribution.

In a quick search on the internet, I came upon the website of the UNHCR. This quotes a report by Edward Lahiff of the Programme for Land Reform and Agrarian Studies (Plaas), based at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, titled Land Reform in South Africa, a Status Report 2008.

The site states that in November 2005, the agriculture ministry said in a report to Parliament that 70 percent of land reform projects in Limpopo Province were dysfunctional, which was attributed to poor design, negative dynamics within groups and lack of post-settlement support.

"Central to any overhaul of policy must be reform of the institutions tasked to implement such policy," the Plaas reported suggested.

It noted that where land reform had occurred, the state had failed to support it adequately.

"South Africa has approximately one-third of the number of extension officers required to meet its devel opment targets, and 80 percent of the current extension staff are not adequately trained."

This lack of support, combined with the lack of effective education in the years since 1994, will ensure that South Africa experiences food shortages if rapid redistribution of land goes ahead.

Land reform is necessary but expropriation is merely one possible step.

The entire process requires forward thinking, planning, preparation and oversight, none of which Julius Malema is proposing and all of which depend on education.

To misquote a piece of folk wisdom: give a man a farm and you feed him for a season. Teach enough men to farm and they feed the nation for a lifetime.

CEP Smith

Middelburg

Mpumalanga