THE REVOLUTION IN RURAL LIFE

 2.                  The farmers, Black, Coloured and White, have been the foundation of the
existing economy, the political order of historic states long before the
present time.

 3.                  In fact it is from the countrysides that the great majority of city-dwellers
have been drawn to the developments. If it wasn’t for the rural movement,
the great cities would not have existed, neither their growth and
economical power. The rural farming life has been freed from the oppressive
 isolation and limited contacts of the old farming ways. The question – by
choice, chance or forced change remains open for debate.

 THE REVOLUTION IN FARMING

4.                  The increased efficiency of the new farming methods freed more
agricultural labourers for the new demands of the city. Now the empire
of machines and modern technology has drawn more and more of the
population into great urban centres.

5.                  The information computers, television, advanced communications
and the modernisation of the transport industries eg. Taxi’s, buses, freight
 haulers etc has drawn more and more of the rural farming population
into great urban centres. The relative decline in the importance of rural
farming and the urbanisation of those population groups, created a new
 human race – a race that is far more advanced as what their ancestors
would ever be.

6.                  Not only has farming become mechanised and computerised to an
unprecedented degree in the 21^st  Century, thus greatly increasing its
efficiency and per capita production, but our general economy has grown
even more complicated. Agriculture has to face many more diversified
problems. As the farmer has made himself more efficient and compatable
to technology and more independent of nature through various “new
age” technologies, he has at the same time piled up agricultural
surplusses which are difficult to dispose of at a profitable margin.

7.                  Yes, technology and urbanisation of life has opened new contacts and
experiences for the farmer, and has revolutionised his outlook upon life in
many segments, but did anyone really look at the impact of continuous
population loss to the rural farming communities. Why are rural people
 moving towards urbanisation – what is the farmer doing wrong or right?

 A "NEW" AWARENESS OF RURAL LIFE FARMING

8.                  Like the city dweller, the rural inhabitant has been made world-conscious.
The question is: “How do we deal with this consciousness in practical everyday
terms on the farm and how do we stop urbanisation and the elimination of
the rural farming opportunities.

9.                  The farmer, himself, by means of the “power-age” technology eg. Irrigation,
fertilisation, chemical protection against insects and other innovations has
rendered himself more independent of the eccentricities of nature. It is
economics rather than meteorology which provides him with his greater
obstacles today.

10.             Therefore the farmer himself tends to look more and more to the Government
as a means of helping him out of his difficulties, but is the pie-in-the-sky the
solution for everyday practical problems?

11.             This new “awareness” forces the farmer of becoming more aware of the
national and Global issues as they bear upon farm problems. But the increased
information highway in the dimensions of socio-economical, economical,
labour, political and land reforms etc confuses most farmers because of
difficulties and complications involved in national and Global trend of
implementation of policies.

12.             The world is currently going through a burst of innovations and it is hard to
keep up with the Jones’s, but we can clearly see that the belief that a
single idea works, has expired. The trend is to a more pragmatic blend of
ideologies, the new trend of technologies by scattering people into smaller
 businesses and self employment are making it compulsary to interact as
allies and not as opposition, competition or enemies.

“UNITY WITHIN DIVERSITY”

13.             I would like to quote Clem Sunter of Anglo American: I once asked a
Japanese businessman: are you a socialist or a capitalist in Japan? To which
he bluntly replied ‘we don’t mind whether you call us socialists or
capitalists – we’re just successful!’ In China a businessman said: ‘ I don’t
care which cat (government) Black or White, is in power, as long as the
cat catches the mouse.’ “

14.             So, yes progressiveness within the rural farming life is possible, but how
and by what price? The key element is that we must realise that we
are interdependent especially in labour, trade and commerce than
ever before in the economy.

 THE REALIZATION

15.             We need to wake up to the realization that we can no longer work as
individuals, but that we are part of a far greater economy. The realization
of this fact will flow over to the fact that the only way forward is that of
nterdependency, realising that we need one another. We need to
develop the team effort principal.

16.             When we talk about the economy we can not exclude the agriculture
and say that it is a stand alone economy and must be dealt with differently
to the rest of the Cathcart economy. It is an integrated economy that we
must promote. We as Africans and more specifically Cathcarters must press
towards a more efficient integrated agriculture which corrects past
inequalities of access to resources and support services to and from the
holisitic farmers definition.

17.             This will bring about faster economical growth of income to the already
depreciating economy of Cathcart. Production and exports lead to more
self-reliant commercial farming ventures and the rest of the general economy
of Cathcart.

18.             We as the role players need to look at what National Government has
already reached and implemented such as:

• a.                The Green paper on agriculture.
• b.                The Rural Development Plan             
• c.                 The Local TLC’s Integrated Land Development Plan.
• d.                The new National Agricultural Marketing Council
• e.                 Other sources of example and input.

19.             Presently the rural farmer, small and medium emerging farmers, are not
integrated into mainstream economies. They must live of the so-called
backdoor scraps.

20.             If we can realise that the economical impact of change from individualism
to interdependence as a district of agricultural stature we will succeed as
a district and town.