When Qaqamba Mampofo from the Eastern Cape applied to Fort Cox College for a diploma course in crop production, she had no idea it would take her almost four years to eventually land a job in the sector. A struggle most agri graduates have experienced.
Despite her qualification, Mampofo has been sitting at home, unemployed ever since her graduation in 2019.
Like countless other agriculture graduates in Mzansi, the government failed to absorb Mampofo into the workforce. This is about to change though.
Employment opportunities on the cards
The Eastern Cape department of rural development and agrarian reform (DRDAR) is on a mission to provide employment opportunities to 120 unemployed agriculture graduates.
The two-year entrepreneurial placement programme is funded by the Comprehensive Agriculture Support Programme (CASP) and is an opportunity for young people to be placed in farms and related enterprises to gain entrepreneurial experiences so that they become job creators.
Each graduate will get paid an annual stipend of R87 000 for the duration of the placement.
Mampofo is one of the graduates and told Food For Mzansi that she is looking forward to finally applying her knowledge to learning as much as possible.
Building blocks
“It means that I will now be equipped with more skills than I have right now. It means that I will be practically living what I had studied and practising the theory that I obtained at school,” she said.
“I will be putting my knowledge to work. I know that being part of this programme will be challenging but it will be building me as a farmer to be.”
The answer to youth unemployment
The head of the department at the Eastern Cape DRDAR, Siphokazi Ndudane, believes the programme is a good way of ending youth unemployment in the province.
“We [have the] highest [number of] unemployment in the country, Eastern Cape is leading. We are [also] leading in food insecurity in the country,” she said.
For this reason, the programme seeks to draw a cohort of unemployed agriculture graduates, she said. The department hopes the graduates will expand their knowledge of agriculture.
“We want them to see and learn how [it is done on farms], and let them think about creating the needed jobs. We want to build entrepreneurs, and get to increase the pool of entrepreneurs in the agricultural space,” Ndudane said.
Time for action
She added that the department had a sizeable budget that came from CASP for training. Ndudane said there was a need to look at how the portion of this budget can be set aside to benefit and assist agricultural graduates in starting their own enterprises.
“We are not going to achieve development and the results we want to see if we don’t become intentional. As long as we beat about the bush, thumb-sucking and doing little everywhere, we are not going to have the impact,” Ndudane said.
“We looking at how to focus and bring in our resources and fine-tune the programme to address the current problems.”
‘We must help create opportunities
The unemployed agricultural, forestry, and fisheries graduates have all been placed in commercial farms and agri-related businesses across the provinces.
One of the host farmers is grain farmer Sinelizwi Fakade, who applauds the government’s efforts to expose agriculture graduates to employment opportunities.
“The story that people need to get employed for an 8-to-5 job is slowly coming to an end. People need to effectively reach areas where they can make a living for themselves and that is why is it important for people to be part of this program,” he said.
‘Agriculture is the answer’
Fakade is passionate about youth employment and has been hosting graduates since 2021.
“Those of us who are in the industry already have been blessed to get an opportunity and it is our mandate to [get] involved. Our mandate is to create opportunities for young people. I know the struggle, and at this particular point people are looking for an opportunity and agriculture is the answer,” explained Fakade.
Meanwhile, Mampofo said she looked forward to her placement and is eager to gain more practical knowledge.
“I will be exposed to people like farmers and department representatives. It will be an eye-opener and I’d like to use this platform to establish myself as someone who owns their own enterprise,” she said.
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