Young people in the Free State are soaring to greater heights in the Agriculture industry. The provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural development says through various youth support programmes it wants to produce more young commercial farmers.
This year almost 200 young farmers participated in the Youth in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries awards. Young people of the Free State are working the land and making agriculture fashionable.
35-year-old Dieketseng Mahlelehlele has been working on her farm since 2019 and is confident that by next year she will reach commercial status. She comes from a farming background and now she works with livestock and crops.
She says her journey has been boosted by attending various agricultural courses from Grain SA and receiving funding and guidance from government.
Dieketseng says, “ It requires a lot of capital so you always to be innovative, you can’t do one thing because a cow for example is pregnant for nine months and then you need some sort of income while that is happening. Same with the sheep, same with the crops you have to wait for them to grow. So my challenge is trying to find innovative ways to make more money for the farm income.”
30-year-old farmer Tumelo Pedi from Bloemfontein says, “Young farmers have an important role to play in food production and creating jobs.”
His journey started with him selling and buying livestock, before being allocated a farm in 2016. From there he says he started without any funding and traded with cattle and sheep.
Tumelo’s market is mostly for funerals and traditional ceremonies, and he is also producing and selling lucerne. He says he started buying second-hand machines with the money he was making and now employs two permanent staff and two part-times.
He has been shortlisted for the Young Producers and Entrepreneurs program.
“I got into it by buying and selling animals and I am still doing it for cash-flow purposes because you cannot wait for six months before making an income. You have to find a way in which at the end of the month you can pay your employees, you can pay your diesel, pay Eskom and you can get your business going forward. So it is important that young people must be passionate first of all and they must build relations,” Tumelo explains.
The department believes grooming the youth will secure the future of the country. It wants to ensure that the province remains a key player in food production.
Free State MEC for Agriculture and Rural development, Thembeni Nxangisa says he is proud that many young farmers are succeeding.
“The intention is to encourage others to also do better and excel in their work. “And also to encourage all young people to join agriculture. Agriculture is a stable future for our youth, and a stable future for our country. Because food security is important and everybody has to eat. One can never go wrong when in agriculture.”
Both Tumelo and Dieketseng will soon be commercial farmers. They agree that cash flow is vital in farming and that the youth should unite to create a network to ensure sustainability.
Video| Youth soars to greater heights in the agriculture industry
