Graduates form NPO to help grow agriculture
Working with their past experience and using their passion to produce good-quality grain farmers
A group of Mthatha graduates are the true definition of vuk’uzenzele (get up and do it yourself) and are on a mission to help propel the agricultural sector in the province to greater heights.
The group, consisting of 36 members between the ages of 21 and 35, founded Ukhanyo Farmers Development (UFD), a non-profit organisation, in August 2019 to help develop the farming sector in the province.
Ukhanyo secretary Siposetu Jilata said they started the NPO to provide mentorship to farmers to help them increase the volume and quality of their produce, and assist them to break into markets..
Ukhanyo’s members, 90% of whom are women, have qualifications in crop and livestock production and agricultural economics.
“This assists to create a balance in activities because the crop production specialists are there to advise on all croprelated issues, the livestock specialists are there to make recommendations for livestock feed planting that we are doing, then the agricultural management and economists assist with marketing, administrative duties and sourcing of funds,” Jilata said.
“On a day-to-day basis, we visit our project sites for ongoing mentoring and monitoring of stages of project developments.
“From time to time we have farmer meetings per district, we host farmers’ day events, and we attend school career guidance days to offer career guidance to pupils.”
The group were part of the Grain SA development programme for three years, where they received first-hand experience in assisting farmers.
“It was not a very difficult transition [to start the organisation] as we were now grown enough to be a fully independent organisation that had received a solid foundation of rural development and commercialisation of black farmers through the model we had exercised before,” Jilata said.
The NPO assist farmers in districts such as OR Tambo, Amathole, Joe Gqabi, Alfred Nzo and Chris Hani.
“We are working with our past experience and using our passion to produce good-quality grain farmers who will all become commercial at the end of the day and improve the economy of their different areas,” Jilata said.
“As a start, we are only dealing with grain crops, but as the entity develops, we will add vegetable crops, as well as livestock feed.
“One of the decisions to start the organisation was based on strategic thinking because of the direction that the province, the industry and farmers were taking.
“It was high time as young people of the industry in the Eastern Cape we take charge of what we want our province to be in the future.”
Jilata said with the right expertise, along with support from the public and private sectors, it would not be a difficult task to propel agriculture in the province.
She said their challenge was funding for daily organisational operations.
“We would really appreciate funding so we can take this NPO and its activities to greater heights and indeed produce a green Eastern Cape.
“The advantage about agriculture is that money is literally on your fingertips.
“No matter which qualification you have, you can do something to keep yourself busy and to generate some sort of income for yourself,” she said.