New shift begins to produce employers instead of job seekers

Siphokazi Ndudane

Asheadofthe departmentofruraldevelopmentand agrarianreform(DRDAR),I willensure that graduates placed on farms and related enterprises form their own businesses.

The department has placed unemployed graduatesinagriculture sectorenterprisesso that they can learn to be business owners who are employers, instead of job seekers.

The two-yearentrepreneurial placement programme for 120unemployed graduates is funded throughthe comprehensiveagricultural support programme (Casp)and is an opportunityfor youngpeople tobe placedwith farmsand relatedenterprisesto gainentrepreneurial experience so that they become job creators.

Theimportant thingis thatwe don t want todoahit-and-run here,wherewetake120 graduates for two years and after that they go back to being unemployed.

The departmentwill refocusand reshape itsbudget sothatthese unemployedagriculture graduates can start their own businesses.

We will lookat how to availthe resources of government to theseyoungsters so that theycan stretchtheir ideasin whatevercommodities they want to venture into.

Inthatveinwewant tolookathowwerefocus andreshape thebudget ofthe departmentand engageother governmententities and the private sector.

Wehave asizeablebudget thatcomes from Casp fortraining. We will haveto set aside a portion of this budget for these young adults so that we can literally pump it to assist them in starting enterprises.

Weare notgoingto achievedevelopment and theresults wewant tosee ifwe don t become intentional to ensure young farmers are supported.

As long as we beat about the bush, thumbsucking and doing littleeverywhere, we are not going to have an impact.

We are looking athow to concentrate, bringin ourresourcesandfine-tune theprogramme to address the problem.

We will reshape ourbudgeting process, using money from Caspand other programmes to develop these youngsters.

We aregoing to be engagingthe departmentofsmallbusiness andalotofprivate partnersthatI amverysureare goingtobe willing to partner with us to incubate the great agriculturalideas thatare goingto comeout of these young people.

Wewanttosee theparticipationofyoung people, blacks in particular,in the agriculture sector that is thebigger aim of this programme.

Thisistoaddress theissueofunemployment in the country,specifically the province, within the sector of agriculture.

As youwould know,we arethe highestin the country when itcomes to the unemployment rate.

The EasternCape is leading infood insecurity and we’vegot thehighestnumberof youth sitting athome unemployed, including graduates.

Our aimis notjust tokeep themfor two years to sit around andsee a little, but they should expand their thinking so that they look beyond finding jobs, but create them.

The governmentwants thegraduates to beableto thinkontheirown andseehow they can create jobs.

Wewant toincreasethepool ofentrepreneurs in the agricultural space.

TheEastern Capehas beenpraised byeveryone as having potential because of its natural resources, good climateand good soils, but we’vebeen literallystuck inthat potential as a province.

We havenot been able tograduate from that potential.

We dounderstand thatif wedon t actively bringintheyoung peoplewhocanthinkdifferently about the sector,who have different energy, who are more energetic than we are in this sector we will be lacking.

There is an oldergeneration of farmers worldwide, and government through this programme is attractingyoung people because they willcome with more energyand innovative ideas on how to drive agriculture.

Theywillassistus tograduatefrompotential to realise the potential of this province.

I mexcited thatboththe graduatesand host farmerssee this opportunity asa vehicle to addressfood insecurity,unemployment and create a new crop of farmers.

This is thethird cohort and duringthe first onewe learntthatwewere groomingemployees, hence we arenow working on creating enterprises.

Inthesecondbatch, weranacompetition where graduates presented their business plansand thewinnerswere providedwith start-up capital by DRDAR.

MEC NonkqubelaPieters hasinstructed us tousethe availablegovernmentinfrastructure toensure the graduates areventuring into different commodities.

We will utilise the research centres, training centresand irrigationschemesto boostthe economic impact of these youngsters.