Despite facing challenges like inequality and lack of financial resources, empowering black farmers through development programmes equips them with the skills, resources, and opportunities needed to thrive in the agricultural sector.
Speaking at Food For Mzansi’s AgriFuture SA conference in Pretoria, the head of grower development at the South African Farmers Development Association (Safda), Sifiso Mnguni, underlined that the country faces inequality that dates back many years. Therefore, he added, South Africa needs to be able to define and separate between interventions that are sustaining, perpetuating, or addressing inequality.
Hands-on approach to development
“If we are to address inequality, it means we need to strive to give more opportunities, more money, and more everything in terms of those that have been previously disadvantaged,” he said.
Mnguni, who is responsible for the development of farmers at Safda, highlighted that when confronting issues, it must be done in such a way that those who were previously disadvantaged – which is the majority of blacks in small and medium-scale farming – get more than what is offered.
“We are responsible for just over 22 000 in the sugar industry. We recognise and receive the farmers, orientate them, and make sure that we teach them and provide them with training and development about the business that they are involved in.
“We are premised on foundational transformation, so we are very hands-on in doing all of these things. We have further employed over 160 others who are always on the ground working with farmers,” he said.
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Focusing on transformation
According to the chief executive officer of Agri Enterprises, Pieter de Jager, they have three divisions in which they deliver services for their clients.
“When we look at development in the agri-space, we specifically look at transformation. We have advisory services which are typically management consulting-type services.
“We also have a corporate finance division that looks at funding and transactional support for commercial and developmental agriculture projects. And then, importantly, we also have a rural development division,” he added.
Opening doors for up-and-coming farmers
De Jager mentioned that one of the key challenges faced is how to bring new farmer entrants into a market that is dominated by large and very sophisticated businesses.
“As we have heard before, the large farmers are consolidating, they are adapting very quickly to technology. So we bring new entrants, aspiring farmers, and small commercial farmers into that space through the entrepreneurial incubator.
“It is specifically for a fresh entrance into the market. It’s for aspiring people or just people who are just going out of subsistence to start farming,” he explained.
“In our entrepreneurial incubator, the current project that we are running is for women in farming. It is a project for female entrance into the agriculture space in KwaZulu-Natal, and we capacitate them through different interventions,” he said.
Partnerships and transformation
He further added that solutions must be flexible so that they suit the participants and the people who need help. Most importantly, he emphasised the importance of partnering and collaborating for even greater results when it comes to farmer development.
The two speakers, Mnguni and De Jager, said their enterprises continue to ensure that empowering black farmers goes beyond land access and also involves supporting their entrepreneurial endeavours, facilitating knowledge, and fostering collaborations and partnerships for growth.
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