De-risking agriculture, the agronomists speak: Roundtable at Omnia House

The boardroom fills up prior to the meeting

“This week is a better week to meet than last week”. Rain had fallen in several parts of the country, and it was a worthy reminder of how dependent South Africa’s agricultural value chain is on water.

Jan Vermaak, Managing Director of Omnia Fertilizer International, was opening the Omnia Group De-risking agriculture stakeholder roundtable. It was to be a discussion last Friday between leaders within the Omnia Group and leaders from financial institutions like FNB and Nedbank.

Jan Vermaak (centre)

A number of questions had been posed before the event: financing difficulties using land as primary source of security; bank frustrations when dealing with farmer profiling for finance (what is good, solid collateral?) Can soil health play a role in de-risking agriculture? Short presentations started the proceedings.

The farmer’s position is perhaps not appreciated by the average citizen. There are no subsidies on offer in the country, and relatively speaking, no help from a government which on one hand champions the role of agriculture to create jobs, earn foreign exchange and stabilise the country, but on the other treats commercial farmers as an enemy.

Negotiations have been in process for years for government help in insuring the industry against inclement weather. For now, insurance carries an enormous price tag, and the cost of functions like the country’s biosecurity is increasingly met by the private sector.

Seelan Gobalsamy (centre)

In some parts of the country rain has not fallen for five years! The entire risk on production is carried by the farmer. Input suppliers still earn money from the transaction with the farmer, but if the weather sabotages the crop, the loss falls entirely on the farmer (no refunds!) For this reason, a sentiment like that of Seelan Gobalsamy, CEO of Omnia Group, was called for: when farmers succeed sustainably, it is good business for input suppliers, but also for the country and the planet. Look after the people from whom you are making your money!

Vermaak's presentation an overview of the macro environment. Our population is growing but the amount of land remains the same, and most of it is semi-desert. The importance of managing this land correctly is highlighted by the country’s income inequality, which means food cost increases have “very real social impacts”. 

Yield boosts have flattened out. Applying too much nitrogen has meant lower returns as well as environmental damage. “Greener” products like biostimulants mean less fertiliser is used.  Other products improve plant resistance to drought, heat stress, cold stress or water saturation.

Jacques de Villiers

Precision farming, which prescribes the precise proportion of inputs for optimal yields, will feature several times over the course of the afternoon. It certainly was in the foreground of the next presentation, Jacques de Villiers, MD of Omnia Fertilizer SA. 

De Villiers' presentation centred the role of soil health and good farming practice in bringing relief to high risk profiling of farmers. Technology can indicate the status of a farmer’s soil and, working from this, the likelihood of a good crop can be predicted. Soil health has thus de-risked the farmer’s prospects, and so the producer who is in touch with the soils on the farm is a better position when it comes to negotiating finance and other inputs.

Venessa Moodley

Venessa Moodley, GM of the group's OmniBio business unit, is passionate about soils. They are the basis of life! They have to be the cornerstone of agriculture. 

Soil comprises nutrients; physical characteristics like texture and drainage; and biological components such as rhizosphere and root microbiome. These need to be balanced with biostimulants, humic acids, fulvic acids, seaweed extracts, microbes, amino acids, vitamins and fertilisers, in right combinations at right times. Read the soil, do the sums and enjoy increased profitability. 

People are aware of water scarcity? Good! But if the soils haven't been attended to you have runoff and you won't make the most of the water that is available.

Moodley champions the recently launched Omnia Soil Health Prism, a tool to analyse and make recommendations around the conditions of particular soils. Farmers who use this tool may not understand all the technicalities of soil, but they won't have to. The prism sharpens their focus and their questions, enabling them to arrive at soil interventions more timeously.

Relevant pages on AgribookDigital include "Soils", "Fertiliser" and "Speciality fertilisers".