Is agriculture the answer to SA’s unemployment crisis? While barriers like land access and finance persist, innovative youth are bridging the skills gap in robotics and research. Papi Kubeka and Dr Joseph Kau of the ARC explore how young innovators are turning a “path of last resort” into a high-value tech frontier.
South Africa’s agricultural sector stands as a cornerstone for the economy and it is a pillar of national food security, yet it faces a profound policy paradox. While official statistics reveal a youth unemployment crisis of more than 42%, a critically low level of youth participation persists in the agricultural sector.
This goes against the backdrop of agriculture facing crises of an ageing population. Overall participation rates for youth remain modest, with persistent barriers like limited access to finance, land, and inclusive policy frameworks severely limiting broad engagement.
The historical stigma, reinforced by beliefs that farm work is “hot, dirty, and tiring”, continues to discourage many. This creates a stark disconnect; a vast pool of unemployed young people remains disproportionately excluded from a field with significant potential to provide livelihoods.
Pervasive barriers, including negative perceptions of agriculture, severely limited access to productive land and capital, a mismatch in skills training, and a fragmented policy environment, drive this exclusion. The result is a triple loss: a missed opportunity for youth economic empowerment, a growing threat to long-term food security, and the stagnation of a sector in desperate need of renewal.
For generations, the classic image of a South African farmer, weathered hands, vast fields, and relentless physical toil has driven young people toward urban careers, viewing agriculture as an unprofitable and unglamorous path of last resort.
However, a new and different perception is now emerging, not of abandonment, but of transformation, where youth start to embrace agriculture as a vehicle for empowerment and job creation. Young South Africans are trading hoes for hashtags and open fields for vertical farms, driven by entrepreneurship, sustainability, and digital technology.
This is no longer your grandparents’ farming; this is the rise of the agripreneur.
Growing interest by the youth into agriculture comes at a time when there is glaring evidence for skills shortage in agricultural research. Reports show that in South Africa, there is a shortage of skills for entomologists, plant breeders, experts in robotics, and machine learning.
Innovative strategies by young agripreneurs
Today’s youth are moving beyond staple crops to build agribusinesses focused on high-value, niche, and vertical commodities that promise better returns. Their ventures align with broader shifts toward specialised value chains, value addition, and green entrepreneurship in Africa and Asia. This includes high-value horticulture, such as microgreens, which are emerging as nutrient-dense superfoods with strong market potential and suitability for urban production.
Youth also pursue specialised enterprises like apiaries and other non-traditional enterprises, as well as value addition through agro-processing – a key pathway for boosting income and employment. Their entrepreneurial focus extends beyond production to the business of farming itself.
Young agripreneurs now engage across the value chain as service providers, market facilitators, and value adders. They create diverse revenue streams through agro‑tourism and agro‑ecotourism, which combine farming, gastronomy, and tourism to revitalise local food systems and generate on‑farm income.
Digital platforms also enable them to connect directly with consumers, improve market access, and reduce intermediation.
In addition, youth are building enterprises around sustainable solutions such as organic and agroecological practices, nature‑positive farming, and waste‑based ventures like composting. These respond to growing greenmarket demand and support circular food systems.
For this generation, agriculture is a dynamic platform for innovation and enterprise – provided constraints like finance, infrastructure, and skills are addressed through targeted training, mentorship, and supportive policies.
Research confirms that significant opportunities exist in agriculture, particularly when youth have access to crucial support like training, credit, and supportive policies.
They are innovating across the entire value chain, from pre-production technology to post-harvest logistics. To succeed, they are tapping into a growing startup ecosystem of government grants, agritech incubators, and mentorship programmes.
These support systems are vital for turning ideas into reality, as seen in the success stories of young founders who have scaled their ventures with such backing.
Successful youth leading the charge
Thabo Dithakgwe, who began at age 13, now manages a 790-hectare empire through Nasi Ditha Farming, Wildlife and Projects, raising premium Bonsmara cattle, goats, and sheep. By reinvesting profits, he has become a leading example of building a significant sustainable business by age 19.
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Similarly, in Limpopo, Emmanuel Mudau transitioned from a sales career to establish a thriving mixed livestock venture, scaling from just three goats to a commercial operation with 300 goats, 500 sheep, and 60 cattle, underscoring the resilience needed to overcome market barriers.
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In the realm of small stock, Nomfundo Amelia Wojie’s “Mila Tiya Project” in the Western Cape has grown from 18 to nearly 100 goats as of 2025. With support from the Western Cape department of agriculture and Casidra, she uses modern infrastructure to ensure herd health and now mentors other youth in profitable goat husbandry.
Technology and sustainability drive Mogale Maleka and Tumelo Pule, mechanical engineering graduates who founded AB Farms; they developed a specialised hydroponic prototype that reduces energy use and increases planting density, highlighting a shift toward climate-smart, high-tech vegetable production.
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Meanwhile, in the untapped niche of apiculture, Kearabetswe Moepi of Mpumalanga launched his beekeeping venture after specialised training in 2019, overcoming land access challenges to establish an apiary that supports local food security through pollination and honey production.
Together, these stories illustrate a diverse and dynamic agricultural future, built on early exposure, reinvestment, technology, and unwavering resilience.
What the youth needs from government
Against the backdrop of youth historically being excluded in agriculture, lately, the tide has been changing positively. Not only is youth involved in agriculture, but they also pursue a variety of careers at a professional level, bridging the gap for skills deficiency, innovating the value-chain system through digital solutions while also serving as consultants for various agricultural industries.
They transform the agricultural sector to be attractive towards a diverse set of investors, including those who would ordinarily invest in lucrative markets such as stock markets, property, finance and technology.
This is important for a country such as South Africa, that constantly faces high rates of unemployment. The timing for youth participation in agriculture, could not have been perfect, given emerging geopolitical policy shifts, such in the example of Brics-plus movements and the promulgation of the African Continent Free Trade Agreement.
It is therefore prudent for the government to realise the important role that the agricultural sector can play towards job creation and policy and financial investments needs to be streamlined to reflect on these emerging opportunities.
These calls for a holistic approach to policy formulation. As a starting point, the school curricula need to be redesigned and re-aligned to emerging trends in the agricultural sector, with the needs of youth put at centre stage.
A long-standing problem of skills shortage for specialised skills in agriculture must be addressed as a matter of urgency. There is a need for new policy that incentivises youth for pursuing agricultural careers and for venturing into agri-business.
- Papi Kubeka is an intern agricultural economist, and Dr Joseph Kau is an agricultural economist at the Agricultural Research Council (ARC). The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Food For Mzansi.
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