Africa: Free State Premier Sisi Ntombela, together with Agriculture and Rural Development MEC Thembeni Nxangisa, convened a Youth in Agriculture Dialogue in the small farming town of Steynsrus in Moqhaka Local Municipality.
The dialogue was a strategic platform that sort to encourage young people to aspire for excellence in the field of Agriculture and in the Agro-Processing value chain, but also to publicly acknowledge the outstanding contribution of young people in the mainstream economy of the sector.
The time is now for the youth to make a meaningful contribution to the sector, but most importantly, to benefit from the wave of change. The misconception that agriculture is not vibrant and sustainable is unscientific and grossly erroneous.
The high rate of youth unemployment, rural migration and the ageing farmer population prompted the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development to develop the Young Producers and Entrepreneurs Strategy (YPES).
This strategy attempts to support the establishment of youth-owned and managed enterprises, youth entrepreneurs, and other activities that will encourage the active participation of youth in the agricultural sector in order to bridge the gap between ageing producers and reduce unemployment and poverty.
Consistent with YPES, today, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, under the stellar leadership of MEC Nxangisa, assisted twenty two (22) young small scale and emerging commercial farmers with a whopping nineteen million rands (R19,000,000) of financial support.
Of the twenty two beneficiaries, nine (9) are female farmers.
Beneficiaries were identified from all five districts of the province. Amongst them was a young farmer from Thaba Nchu who received over 5 million rands and a female farmer who received 3 million in support.
