The annual AFASA Leadership and Strategic Partnership Conference, a showcase for the emerging farmer sector, highlighted the growing role that cannabis is playing in mainstream agricultural structures.
AFASA’s indaba at the Agricultural Research Council’s Roodeplaats facility on 26 November 2025 was themed ‘Working Together to Achieve Agricultural Prosperity’, and was aimed at building stronger relationships across the agricultural value chain. AFASA, which has over 3 000 members, sees its mission as to accelerate transformation, open up market access, and boost productivity for emerging and smallholder farmers.
Among the most important outcomes of the conference, which drew farmers from across the agricultural landscape, was the announcement that the country’s national herd will be vaccinated against food and mouth disease, the signing of a ‘transformation commitment’ to assist small-scale farmers become part of the various agricultural value chains, and the announcement that indigenous plants are to be classified as agricultural crops so that rural communities could exploit them.
SACHIDA’s chair, Katlego Kgopotse and executive members, Dinake Motona, Qhuzulini Sithole and Cian McClelland attended the AFASA summit to reinforce SACHIDA’s mandate as a federation of cannabis and hemp organisations committed to advancing inclusive industry development within South Africa’s formal agricultural sector.
Although the conference itself was a general agricultural event, a specific partnership was set up around South African landraces. The partnership between the African Cultural Heritage Trust ( a national community based NGO promoting ‘living heritage’), AFASA, SACHIDA, Druids Garden, and The Rolling Stoner, has the following mission:
- Protecting, conserving, and promoting South Africa’s landrace cannabis genetics
- Returning these genetics to the communities from which they originated
- Supporting Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS)
- Advancing biodiversity, cultural heritage, and community-based economic development
The keynote address at the conference was delivered by Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen who also announced important regulatory progress, including the approval of indigenous crops and medicinal plants as agricultural products under the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act (No. 47 of 1996).
“This recognition will unlock new opportunities for small-scale farmers, traditional healers, and rural communities,” he explained.
Heritage Trust president Qhuziline Sithole (pictured here), who is also a SACHIDA executive member, appealed for landrace cannabis to be recognised within the new programme to protect and develop indigenous plants. He said the changes were closely aligned with the Heritage Trust’s and SACHIDA’s growing advocacy for the inclusion of landrace cannabis in future indigenous plant protection frameworks.
#
