The 2024 Mzansi Young Farmers Indaba kicked off with three masterclasses aimed at empowering producers and agricultural stakeholders with valuable insights. Led by the Perishable Products Export Control Board (PPECB), CropLife South Africa, and Business France, these sessions provided practical knowledge to enhance operational efficiency and broaden market access.
The event, which took place at Lavender Kontrei Market in Pretoria North, saw farmers being given tools on how to navigate exports and biotechnology to ensure farmers participate in the whole value chain. A total of six masterclasses were presented to over 1 500 delegates who attended the event.
Quality cold chain services
The masterclasses play a crucial role to advance the knowledge and skills of agricultural professionals and ensuring that the operations are profitable.
The PPECB masterclass was led by Maikutlo Matubatuba and agri-business development specialist Tshepo Mokgothu who discussed quality assurance and export control within the perishable products industry.
“The PPECB is responsible for delivering inspection and cold chain services for the export market. This programme is divided into three sub-programmes namely north, south and coastal regions. The aim is to deliver an effective service to all PPECB stakeholders,” Matubatuba said.
The cold chain they maintain as PPECB can be described as the seamless movement of fresh, chilled or frozen products from production to the markets, they explained.
Lessons from the French
In the second masterclass, Dr Severin Jaloustre, the deputy director of French South African Agriculture (F’SAGRI), shared knowledge, technologies, and lessons of French farming systems.
On the success and importance of farming co-operatives in France, she said, “In a cooperative, farmers are not on their own and these cooperatives have proven that they are successful and important.
“One of the reasons why they are successful is because they have supervisors who help farmers by advising them on how they can treat their farms as a business.”
Meanwhile, the founding member of the South African Comprehensive Agroecology National Initiative, Thierry Alban Revent, added that agroecology on French farms has improved food quality and urged South African farmers to put more effort into it.
“In fact, agroecology is not new to African farmers. The indigenous farming knowledge we’ve moved from slightly are agroecological farming methods,” he said.
Using agroecology to enhance agriculture
He revealed that the African Union has reached an agreement to encourage agroecology on the continent, however, South Africa is one of the countries in Southern Africa that have not adopted it.
“Agroecology must enhance the African way of agriculture because agroecology means you have to walk with nature,” he said.
During the third masterclass, Chantel Arendse, the plant biotech lead from CropLife, highlighted the impact of biotech crop adoption locally, which includes improved yields, reduced pesticide use, enhanced farm income, minimised tillage, and increased flexibility.
“In each and every country where companies submit applications for approval, they are subjected to a strict regulatory science strategy,” she said.
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