AgricultSURE and Agriskills Transfer are both Agribusinesses that are committed to helping small-scale farmers in South Africa. AgricultSURE provides group small scale farmer resource assessment programs and custom pack starter packs containing essential crop input to ensure farmers have a better chance at success, while Agriskills Transfer offers agricultural training courses. We collaborate to provide groups of farmers with the best advice, crop input and training needs to succeed.

Agriskills Transfer presents training courses which are specifically selected to address the relevant training needs which are required by the farmers and as is confirmed by AgricultSURE in order to get the full range of support they need to start or grow their farming businesses. By sharing information and resources AgricultSURE and Agriskills Transfer serve the needs of their clients much better and are able to provide farmers with the technical and educational support they need to succeed.

Case study:

A well-established tomato processing company approaches AgricultSURE to identify a potential community to be developed as farmers to supplement their raw material intake. AgricultSURE apply their Integrated Agricultural Resource Assessment Modelling program and identify the geographical area and individual farmers within the communities. After the assessment is completed a business model is drafted and compared with the processing company’s requirements in terms of raw material quantity, quality, intake delivery schedule and price.
Once agreed and signed off AgricultSURE and Agriskills Transfer develop a short term and long-term training requirement profile for all the participating farmers and other role players. This is presented to the processing company for final approval and once approved the process starts to prepare and train the selected farmers.

Agriskills Transfer is contracted to offer AgriSETA accredited training courses on tomato cultivation and crop production as well as entrepreneurial skills development and financial control. AgricultSURE complete the technical natural resources assessment study and provide starter packs which contain the best quality seed, fertilizer and other input to ensure the best crop outcomes. AgricultSURE monitors the activities, practices and expenditure using online mentorship programs and farm management software (on the interim supervisor staff can be contracted onsite to oversee the initial implementation phase of the project).

Result:

After completion of year one the required raw material realization figure is planned at 30%, by the end of year two this figure is projected at 40% with 10% of the farmers exceeding their budgeted yields and by the end of year three the projected yield is achieved at 50% (which is the expected long-term average) while 15% of the farmers manage to exceed their budgeted yields. Although it may seem as if the project figures are not drafted in a sustainable viable format this is often based on technical and historic information supplied by the processing company (in this industry the off-taker supply base often has to be doubled to compensate for enough raw material).

This is just one example of how AgricultSURE and Agriskills Transfer are working together to help small-scale farmers in South Africa. The combined services and collaboration between these two agribusinesses is a valuable resource for farmers and other role players, and it has a growing impact on the industry.