One of the Food For Mzansi’s Changemakers award winners, Malapane Thamaga has dedicated his award to fellow passionate activists in the agricultural space. The announcement was made during the recent annual Young Farmers Indaba held in Gauteng.
Thamaga was announced as one of the four changemakers for exceptional dedication and passion for farming and agriculture.
As the manager in the office of both the president and CEO of the African Farmers Association of South Africa (Afasa), he played a vital role in establishing the African Farmers’ Association of South Africa Commodity Chambers. With a background as an agricultural economist and experience representing the minister of agriculture, land reform and rural development on the Maize Trust, Thamaga brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the agricultural sector.
In an interview with Food For Mzansi, Thamaga reflected on what the award means to him.
“This award, therefore, signifies that someone somewhere is watching and is impressed with the work we put in daily towards growing the developing section of the agricultural sector in South Africa,” he said.
Tiisetso Manoko: Congratulations. What does this award mean to you?
Malapane Thamaga: For me, the Food For Mzansi’s Changemakers award symbolises recognition for the work that one is doing in the agricultural sector. Unlike in other fields or areas of speciality where you can easily judge or gauge your performance daily by the profit or turnover you have realised, the area of policy, lobbying and advocacy tend to be long-term and, in most cases, close to impossible to measure the impact you make at least in the short term.
This award, therefore, signifies that someone somewhere is watching and are impressed with the work we put in daily towards growing the developing section of the agricultural sector in South Africa.
What has been your personal achievement in realising growth and development in the sector?
I am always tempted to gauge my achievement in the sector by the number of farmers we have been able to help realise their goals. Three key points can be used to summarise this question:
- My role in establishing AFASA
Since I joined organised agriculture, the biggest achievement has been firstly to help establish AFASA independently from its caretaker, NERPO, to help accommodate more than just the red-meat sector but other commodities including value chain players. This was achieved by working very closely with the late President of AFASA, Dr Vuyo Mahlati;
- Creating platforms for farmers to engage captains of the industry and high level government officials
Secondly, spearheading platforms through which farmers may have direct access to captains of the industry and high-level government officials, including the office of the Presidency, through the Annual AFASA Agricultural Transformation Conference, AFASA Business Breakfast sessions, Roadshows, and recently the only webinar sessions held under the banner of the Agricultural Transformation Focus has been really valuable; and
- Serving in different agricultural bodies
Thirdly, and lastly, serving on or participating in different industry bodies or forums including the AgriBEE Council and the Maize Trust means that the views of the developing section of the sector are brought into discussions.
I must declare though that there is a lot of work that still needs to be done in this regard and I am happy that there is a lot in the pipeline to help farmers achieve their dreams.
What do you think is lacking in terms of eradicating bottlenecks in the agricultural sector mainly focusing on young people in the agricultural space.
Young people generally shy away from taking leadership roles and allow only the older generation to lead their path while they remain spectators or just armchair critics. Sometimes, they do so because they don’t want to get involved in organisational politics yet there is no institution without politics for as long as a group of people have to take decisions.
Unfortunately, a lot of decisions are taken in the country without involvement of youth because it is deemed a waste of time to attend to policy engagements or participate in organised agriculture. The unfortunate part is that most of the farmers falling under the young generation category have all the education needed to give direction to the sector and hold those in power accountable but are somehow discouraged to participate.
I would therefore urge young people to get involved in leadership roles by volunteering their time to serve in the sector. You do not need to serve as a national or provincial leader to get started. This could be done from the level of organising study groups and helping facilitate farmers days and you grow from there.
How can organised agriculture organisations improve in South Africa?
Organisations are often created in a rush with less consideration invested towards strengthening the governance structure so that there is accountability and processes are followed to solve disputes.
This, unfortunately, creates a situation where you have many organisations doing the same work, making it impossible for the government to regularly engage with organised agriculture because there are so many voices coming from various corners.
Splinters generally happen for three reasons, differences, an inability to resolve conflicts, being bigger than the organisation you represent and a lack of strong governance structure.
Splinters generally happen for three reasons:
- Differences and inability to resolve conflicts.
We have created a culture where leaders do not want to be led. Under this culture, leaders see themselves as the only people who are deserving to lead organisations yet the organisational constitutions are always clear about the term of office;
- Being bigger than the organisation you represent
linked to the first point, is that sometimes leaders think of themselves as being bigger than the organisations they represent and therefore want to take decisions without thorough consultation of the farmers they represent; and
- Lack of strong governance structure
When organisations are created in a rush with less consideration invested towards strengthening the governance structure such that there is accountability and that processes are followed to solve disputes. This unfortunately create a situation where you have many organisations doing the same work and therefore making it impossible for government to regularly engage with organised agriculture as there are many voices coming from different corners.
Finally, your message to farmers in Mzansi?
You cannot farm alone. Farming may seem easy from far but it has its own challenges. Luckly, there are other successful farmers that have walked the farming journey before you. It is important to identify them and work with them as your mentors until you find your feet. Even when you have found your feet, you should always form part of study groups so that you work on farming related challenges as a collective rather than alone. If there is no study group in your area, engage with AFASA so we can help you establish one.
Join organised agriculture. If you are not a member of organised agriculture, I would encourage you to join one now and AFASA is one such organisation you can join as a developing farmer. Through the newly established AFASA Commodity Chambers you can become a beneficiary of farmer support, market access, access to finance and land reform opportunities.
Strive for improvement and make a provision for risk. You never stop learning in agriculture, therefore young farmers are encouraged to always be involved in one training or another including farmers days to have access to the latest agricultural development and networking. Also, you need to measure yourself (increased yields, weaning percentages, increased gross margins, etc.) against the best and work towards improving in that direction.
Generally agriculture is exposed to risk that may either be production risk (weather, climate change, pests, diseases, etc), institutional due to policy changes and market risk due to price fluctuations.
Therefore, as a farmer you need to be abreast with all these challenges to enable you to devise risk management strategies that counter all these possible challenges. Similarly, there are opportunities all over and therefore you need to position yourself such that you are able to meet the requirements to benefit from these opportunities.
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