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A32 FEATURE
Thursday 9 January 2020
South Africa's black farmers fight to enter marijuana market

HENNOPS, South Africa (AP) nabis industry as an impor-
— Stacks of bright green tant sector in the country's
cannabis plants, freshly fight against unemploy-
harvested from nearby hot- ment.
houses, are expertly sorted "We note that the cultiva-
on a lab table by workers tion of cannabis ... can play
wearing hygienic gloves an important role in uplift-
and caps who snip the ing the poorest regions in
leaves and buds and put the country," Ramaphosa
them in bins for further pro- told a community meeting
cessing. in the rural town of Lusikisiki
Druid's Garden in Hennops, in the Eastern Cape prov-
about 20 miles north of Jo- ince in September last year.
hannesburg, is a licensed The province is among the
farm which conducts re- areas in South Africa where
search, legally produces cannabis has been grown
cannabis and other tradi- by many subsistence farm-
tional medicinal products ers for generations, despite
for sale in South Africa and laws against it. The East-
international markets. ern Cape's provincial gov-
The farm's founder, Cian ernment last year sent a
McClelland, said one of delegation to Canada to
his aims is to help smaller- research cannabis cultiva-
scale, black farmers enter In this photo taken Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019 cannabis plants are harvested in a hothouse at Hen- tion and product develop-
South Africa's potentially lu- nops, near Johannesburg, South Africa. ment.
crative marijuana market. Associated Press However South African law
"One of the most important enforcement agencies re-
aspects of this industry is for lection agency Prohibition according to a South Af- more focused on the (pro- main resolute in arresting
us to find ways to uplift small Partners. rican agricultural publica- ducers of) pharmaceuti- those producing without
farmers, particularly black However, there are con- tion, Landbouweekblad. cals," said Semela. permits. In November, po-
rural farmers," said McClel- cerns on the ground that The new marijuana industry South Africa's cannabis in- lice arrested three people
land. "We would like to play black farmers who have could soon be controlled dustry is growing so quickly for operating a hydroponic
an active role around the been working for decades by big pharmaceutical that marijuana conventions lab in Brits, outside the cap-
country, in partnership with in what has been an illegal companies, cutting out are popping up across the ital Pretoria, confiscating
the Heritage Trust, to help industry may miss out on long-time growers, say ag- country. more than $200,000 worth
... provide access to these the potential boom. ricultural experts. A recent cannabis expo of cannabis.
markets." Many smaller growers can- Some successful black held in Johannesburg's "The investigation aims to
McClelland knows that ru- not afford to get the licens- farmers like Itumeleng Tau posh Sandton Convention clamp down on the unlaw-
ral black farmers, who have es needed to grow mari- are working to train emerg- Center attracted hundreds ful mushrooming of can-
grown marijuana tradition- juana for medicinal and ing farmers to grow and of marijuana activists, farm- nabis dispensaries around
ally but illegally, are now research purposes. process cannabis up to the ers, growers and exhibitors the country," said police
fighting to benefit from the The stringent requirements standards required to ob- from across the world. The spokesman Captain Tlan-
country's relaxation of can- include getting police tain medicinal permits. expo grew from 58 exhibi- gelani Rikhotso.
nabis laws. clearances, registering a "If an ordinary farmer in the tor stands last year to more At Druid's Garden, Cian
Following the Constitution- specified plot size, erecting homelands (rural areas) than 200 stands this year, McClelland, said the bar
al Court's decision in 2018 high-tech security fencing, is being required to have according to expo director does not necessarily have
to decriminalize the per- getting irrigation systems two hectares (5 acres) of Silas Howard. to be so high for new en-
sonal use and cultivation and setting up agree- land or one hectare (2.5 "It just goes to show how big trants.
of cannabis, South Africa's ments with overseas buy- acres), fully fenced, while and how fast this industry "Going for a full pharma-
cannabis industry could be ers, among others. The cost they have been farming has grown," said Howard. ceutical license is very ex-
worth more than $23 billion of establishing a legal mari- when it was un-fenced and South African president pensive and out of reach
by 2023, according to a juana farm is estimated to nobody was stealing it, it is Cyril Ramaphosa recently of most rural people," he
recent report by data col- be $200,000 to $350,000, quite impractical," said Tau. touted the country's can- said. q
Moleboheng Semela, a
cannabis activist and gen-
eral secretary of the Can-
nabis Development Coun-
cil, is among those fighting
to get licenses for those
who had previously grown
and sold cannabis illegally.
Her organization helps
emerging farmers to obtain
permits to cultivate canna-
bis and produce medicinal
products.
"We have those commu-
nities that have been in-
In this photo taken Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019, small-scale farmer volved in the cannabis In this photo taken Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019 cannabis plants are
Itumeleng Tau stands among his cannabis plants in a hothouse industry before the court processed in a laboratory at Hennops, near Johannesburg,
in Krugersdorp, South Africa. ruling, but we have seen South Africa.
Associated Press that our government is Associated Press