LAST week the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DLRD) announced that members of the public will be able to apply to lease 700 000 hectares of underutilized or vacant state land in seven of the provinces.
Agricultural land is the mainstay of our natural resource base.
The availability and sustainable use of farmland to grow crops and for animal husbandry is key to our very survival.
South Africa has vast tracts of land suitable for agricultural production, with 37.9% of our total land area currently being used for commercial agriculture.
Like many other countries, our arable land is under threat from land degradation, water scarcity and urban encroachment.
We are also losing prime agricultural land through land-use changes.
Given our history, broadening access to agricultural land for commercial production and subsistence farming is a national priority.
Although the post-1994 land reform process
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