AsgiSA Eastern Cape's Saphukanduku village near Mount Frere crop outstrips national average.

Thukela Mashologu dreams about the day when the former Transkei area will overtake the Free State as SA's major maize-producing region.

Thukela Mashologu dreams about the day when the former Transkei area will overtake the Free State as SA's major maize-producing region.

There is a long, long way to go before that happens, but he points out that the Transkei area has better soil and more rainfall than the Lichtenburg-Bothaville-Ventersdorp "maize triangle" - SA's maize-producing heartland .

"The big difference is infrastructure," says Mashologu, project manager for Accelerated & Shared Growth Initiative for SA (AsgiSA) Eastern Cape's community farming investments.

"During the apartheid era the Free State was targeted as the main maize-producing area and the infrastructure to support it was provided by the government of the time.

"We need to adopt the same approach in Transkei. Rural development cannot take place without improvements in infrastructure."

Mashologu was attending a harvest festival in Saphukanduku village near Mount Frere. It is one of the community empowerment initiatives that the Eastern Cape government funds through AsgiSA.

Here 215 families pooled their land to plant 129ha of maize. The yield of 6,5t/ha surpassed expectations of 4t-5t and, pleasingly for Mashologu, outstripped the national average of 4,5t/ha.

But with maize prices at a low R1100/t, this meant income of only about R7000/ha.

"The costs came to R8500/ha," says Mashologu. "It means we made a loss."

In fact, the loss is even bigger than the arithmetic shows because a maize trader from Kokstad bought most of the harvest at a lower than market price and, after the community's agreed cut of 10% had been taken out, a poultry producer bought the rest as chicken feed.

But the experience does not overly discourage Mashologu. "Maize farmers are all under severe pressure with the low current prices and high costs. And we are all on a learning curve here," he says.

"There are positives in that members of the community got jobs harvesting by hand and there was total buy-in to the project. People worked together and, for example, ensured that cattle and other animals were kept out of the maize fields."

If anything, he believes the experience underlines the need for grain infrastructure such as silos in the region. "It would give us the ability to store maize and to sell when the price suits us, to hedge a bit and ensure we get the best deal."

AsgiSA Eastern Cape CEO Simphiwe Somdyala says a business case for a silo network throughout Transkei has been prepared and sites have been identified.

"We need R42m to build a network capable of storing 10000t of maize. We hope government will give us the money."

He says 10500ha were planted throughout the region this year, with the aim of growing this to 100000ha over the next five years.

Eastern Cape agriculture MEC Mbulelo Sogoni says the provincial government realised the need for infrastructure development in implementing the project and would "mobilise resources" to raise the required funding.

"It is part of our plan for this year. But please remember that sometimes we are wholly successful and sometimes only partly successful in reaching our goals," Sogoni says.

"Circumstances compel us to do our utmost to raise the money required. We might go beyond government and approach the private sector."

Sogoni says though the Saphukanduku project made a loss - largely because of widespread drought in the region - there was an improvement in the quality of grain over that of last year, and other accomplishments.

"We must not lose sight of the fact that we are doing this to empower communities to take control of their own destinies. We are happy with progress in that respect," says Sogoni.