18 SECTOR OVERVIEW FREE
18 SECTOR OVERVIEW FREE STATE AGRICULTURE Transformation through training is working. A three-way partnership is delivering results in terms of giving emerging farmers a better chance of success. The Centre for Sustainable Agriculture at the University of the Free State, Standard Bank and the Free State Department of Agriculture and Rural Development came together to launch the Agribusiness Transformation Programme in 2019. The programme has a focus on improving three kinds of access: to information, markets and finance. A skills programme targets emerging farmers who have at least three years of farming experience, either own their own land or farm on rented land and live permanently on their farms. The first groups of 25 farmers per year have graduated from classroom and practical training. Various agro-business skills are taught in the classroom phase, including animal management, crop production, water and soil management and pasture management. The two-year mentorship which follows is overseen by local Standard Bank staff and experts from the department and the university. The Integrated Vrede Dairy Project, which was in the news for all the wrong reasons during the period of State Capture, was handed over, in the words of the Provincial Premier in the State of the Province address, to its 65 “rightful beneficiaries” in the course of the 2021/22 financial year. A trust representing these owners has a 51% stake with the balance available to private investors. A total of 583 dairy animals have been given to the trust by the provincial government to help them get started. The provincial government is also taking the initiative in promoting cannabis as an agricultural product of the future. Six sites have been identified at Bethlehem, Ficksburg, Kroonstad, Viljoenskroon, Wesselsbron and the Glen Agricultural Training Institute, which will be used as a research site. The Glen Agricultural Training Institute is a public institution of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and specialises in the Group photograph: Emerging farmers are earning qualifications and learning new skills through the Agribusiness Transformation Programme. Credit: Standard Bank Mill production: Agro-processing is an important part of the Free State economy. The production lines of the SASKO Bethlehem Mill process about 144 tons of wheat every year. Credit: SASKO higher and further education training band. The campus comprises nearly 4 600ha. The Modder River runs to the south of the site, with the Renosterspruit as tributary. Five agri-parks are being constructed in each of the Free State’s district municipalities. The concept brings together farmers, traders and agro-processors at convenient sites. Support for rural smallholders will be available in terms of equipment hire from a central source, storage facilities, packaging of produce and getting products to market. As part of the agri-parks programme a warehouse is under construction at Springfontein and the Thaba Nchu abattoir is being upgraded. In Sediba, Farmer Production Support Units supplied a tractor and implements to participants.
19 PRIVATE COMPANIES The SASKO Bethlehem Mill has a total of 96 employees and mills 144 000 tons of wheat every year. Bethlehem was chosen because of its proximity to excellent wheat-producing areas and for its strategic location in terms of logistics: the busy N3 freeway is just 90km away. Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) has plans to double volumes of grain transported out of its Bethlehem facility. VKB Agriculture is one of the companies that will benefit if TFR can increase its capacity to 550 000 tons for the season, as it plans. VKB is already a diverse group, with the capacity to produce soybean meal and soybean cake and flour from its plants, mills and factories. Grain Field Chickens, a large abattoir in Reitz, is one of the company’s biggest facilities in the province. The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), which has a 23% stake in the project, aims to help develop the Free State as the poultry hub of South Africa. VKB has six agro-processing companies including VKB Flour Mills and Free State Oil and is active in auctioning, storage, packaging and fuel sales, among other activities. VKB’s headquarters are in Reitz in the eastern part of the province and the group is one of the province’s largest employers. The Imbani Homsek Group is an integrated dairy-products producer with one of the biggest Ayrshire herds in the world. The head office of Country Bird Holdings is in Bloemfontein: its brands are Supreme Chicken, Nutri Feeds and Ross (breeding). Country Bird Logistics controls 45 chilled and frozen vans. Clover has three factories in the Free State: Bethlehem (milk powder, whey mixtures and creamers); Frankfort (butter, the largest such factory in the country, where ghee and roller dried milk powder is also made) and in Heilbron (whey, buttermilk, condensed milk and packaging). Bothaville hosts the country’s largest agricultural festival, NAMPO Harvest Day. Bothaville falls under the North West in the organisational chart of giant agricultural company Senwes, which has its headquarters in Klerksdorp. The rest of the Free State is divided into three regions by Senwes, which deals with about 20% of the country’s oilseeds and grain through its 68 silos. The province supplies significant proportions of the nation’s sorghum (53%), sunflowers (45%), potatoes (33%), groundnuts (32%), dry beans (26%), wool (24%) and almost all of its cherries (90%). Red meat and dairy are other important products. Game hunting is a significant sector, and several large Free State farms have been converted from stock to game farms. Crop production represents about two-thirds of the province’s gross agricultural income. The main crops are maize and wheat. Sunflowers, sunflower seeds, sorghum and soy beans are other major crops. The Mangaung Fresh Produce Market plays a vital role in the sector, catering as it does to householders, bulk buyers, informal traders, agents and farmers.
