A wise man once said “a great leader is the one who shares the knowledge with others”. Makhado showground was the place to be for everyone in the field of agriculture. That is where the farmer’s forum local development held their inaugural event on the March 2010. Farmer’s forum local development is an agribusiness interactive dialogue platform for developing commercial agriculture. This magnificent event is held in all provinces and Limpopo was the first to hold it this year.
Organisations that were invited to make presentation focusing on Makhado Municipality were, Limpopo Department of Agriculture (LDA), Limpopo Economic Development Environment and Tourism, Makhado Municipality, Local Economic Development Office (LED), National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC), Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and Vhembe District Municipality (VDM). The topics that were presented on the day included the following:
* How does an issue of service delivery and infrastructure maintenance affect agribusiness and what are the solutions
* The role of the private sector in agriculture development
* The promotion of local agribusiness of as part of the local economic development strategy as initiated by the municipal districts.
* Agricultural market information: how does this affect agribusiness and what are the thereof?
* Extension services rendered by the private sector towards profitable farming, and the promotion of working relations among farmers in the district.
From the LDA, the manager of Advisory Services Mr Khathutshelo Muthala gave a presentation that focused on the status of agriculture and agribusiness strategies in Vhembe District, best farm practices, technical assistance provided by the department on crop and animal production and the capacity building services rendered by extension officers. He also mentioned the major services that the department is offering to farmers, like extension services, Animal production, Crop production and agribusiness.
He also mentioned that the LDA has supporting programmes such as Female Farmer competition to empower women in agriculture and Young Aspirant Farmer of the Year competition to encourage young people to participate in the agricultural industry. He added that the LDA also provided support to farmers through programmes such as Comprehensive Agriculture Support Programme (CASP) and MERCAS. He said extension officers interacted with farmers and stakeholders through study groups, meetings, information days, exposure visits and imbizos.
Agribusiness specialist from the National Agriculture Marketing Council (NAMC) Mr Phistus Mashamaite said the organization has forged a relationship with Department of Trade and Industry, Seda and other donors to encourage new market development and build capacity of black producers. He stated that NAMC’s mandate is to advise the Minister of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries and Directly Affected Groups (DAGs) on matters relating to the marketing of agricultural products.
NAMC’s has three focus areas which were explained in detail as follows; statutory measures division deals with the control of exports of agricultural products and statutory levies, the Agribusiness development division which collaborates with industries and other public and private institutions in designing programmes aimed at increasing market access, encouraging new business development and capacity building of historically disadvantaged agribusinesses, lastly, the marketing and economic research centre division. This division deals with linking farmers to markets and market development, mapping, understanding and quantifying agro-food chains, risk management and trade.
Mr Peter Mashamba, Deputy Extension Manager based at Makhado Municipality spoke mainly about agricultural activities within Makhado as a municipality. He said Makhado specialises on subtropical fruits, crop, livestock and game farming. He singled out markets and shortage of water supply as the main challenges.
The Chairperson of Farmers Forum Local Development, Mr Duma Ndlovu indicated that by 2012, they are planning to establish or roll out district agribusiness system information offices where farmers can simply walk in to access information.
Issued by: Department of Agriculture, Limpopo Provincial Government
26 March 2010
Source: Department of Agriculture, Limpopo Provincial Government (http://www.lda.gov.za/)
