South Africa to release 2.5m hectares of state land to black farmers: President

South Africa is releasing about 2.5 million hectares of state-owned land to black farmers, with title deeds, as part of efforts to address racial inequalities in agriculture and expand their participation in commercial farming, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday, reported Xinhua.

In his weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa said that despite significant growth in the agricultural sector since the end of apartheid, its benefits had not been shared equally.

South Africa's agricultural exports reached a record 270 billion rand (about 16.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, but commercial farming remains dominated by white-owned farms, while black farmers account for only around 10 percent of commercial farming output.

Ramaphosa stressed that transforming the sector is essential to addressing historical inequalities and strengthening food security. "The first step in building a new generation of South African farmers is providing them with titled access to land," he said.

Through the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy, the government is releasing the land with title deeds to black farmers, Ramaphosa said, adding that secure access to land needs to be accompanied by affordable financing, practical training, mentorship and access to technology and other resources.

"Far too often, emerging farmers are kept trapped at subsistence level because they cannot get the financing they need for farming inputs, infrastructure and additional land," he said.

The president noted the Land Bank and the Department of Agriculture have introduced a blended finance scheme combining government grants with loans, encouraging more commercial banks and agribusinesses to join the program and develop additional funding mechanisms.

"We can bring more land under cultivation, create a new generation of black commercial farmers and ensure that we grow enough not only to feed all our people, but to sell to markets across the world," Ramaphosa said.