By: Zanele Mfaba
Twitter: @mfaba_zanele
Email: Zanelemfaba1408@gmail.com
Unemployment is at its highest for the youth in South Africa, young people
have to think of ways to sustain a living and to be great contributors in the
community.
What better way to do all of that than to indulge in agriculture, there has
been a turn of sectors where the government has advised the youth in South
Africa to go into like nursing, teaching, information technology, accounting and
more.
With the newest introduction of agriculture, small-scale farmers started taking
farming a lot more serious now. Small-scale farmers like Mokgadi Modiba (30)
who owns Urban Legae Poultry (Pty) Ltd was forced to make a change after
the passing of her mother with that she decided to complete her degree in
business and bought a 900 square meters plot of land to start her farming.
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| Image from Twitter |
According to commons.ru.ac.za, South Africa comprises around 35 000 large-
scale, mostly white-owned commercial farms that occupy most of the
agricultural land and despite all of this Mokgadi was still able to enter this
sector and excel in it.
As reported by AIMS Press, more than 1 million households in the country
depend on smallholder farming for their livelihoods and nutrition. This is where
people like Mokgadi bring help to the community.
The outbreak of COVID-19 really put small-scale farmers in the most
vulnerable space ever but this was a problem helped eliminate by the
government.
Now that everyone is recovering from the outcomes of COVID-19. The
National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) and Solidarity Fund gave out
funds to people like Mokgadi which she used as production inputs and to fix
the infrastructure on her farm.
Here is a video of Mokgadi and Maranti on the farm:
recognizing the crucial role that small-scale farmers play in the local food
system.”
Dinewo Ntshanana (25) raises and breeds domestic pigs as livestock for
commercial purposes. Ntshanana is one of the many young people who
received funding from the NYDA to get her business started.
“Having wonderful support from the organization as a young person is
motivation to do better on its own and I really hope this organization not only
helps me but helps all the young people of South Africa striving for better
opportunities”, said Ntshanana.
The NYDA Grant Programme is designed to provide young entrepreneurs
with an opportunity to access both financial and non-financial business
development support in order to enable them to establish or grow their
businesses.
Mr Waseem Carrim, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth
Development Agency said that he was recruited at only the age of 26 to be
part of the organization and that on its own guarantees that the NYDA is all for
youth empowerment.
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| Image from Google |
This organization has proudly achieved having over 20 730 beneficiaries
being supported with business development support services in the township
and rural economy. With those enterprises creating and sustaining more than
14 021 jobs.
The challenges faced by the organization is that there is a lack of support as
the private and public sector doesn’t rally behind the economic recovery plan
announced by the government to ensure that young people are placed front
and center of the plan.
The NYDA wishes to continue striving for a better future for the youth of South
Africa by alleviating poverty, assisting urban and rural development,
and combating crime, substance abuse, and social decay among the youth.
This is also said by the Executive Chairperson of the NYDA, Asanda Luwaca in the audio below:
https://on.soundcloud.com/md7wu
The country’s economy seems to be of much concern in terms of the high rate
of unemployment but with such an organization young people in South Africa
at least have something to look forward to.
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