Food production excites young farmer

Producing fresh vegetables bought by scores of customers for their households excites Fort Cox Agriculture and Forestry Training Institute graduate Mfihlelo Tisana.

He is one of many previously unemployed agriculture graduates drafted into the graduate placement programme by the Eastern Cape department of rural development and agrarian reform in response to the needling graduate unemployment problem.

Tisana studied crop production at the institute and is part of the second cohort of 120 graduates placed by the department in various participating agriculture ventures.

He now says he wants to start his own agriculture business.

“I did crop production and that has put me in a great place,” Tisana said. “Now I’m able to produce food and it gives me pleasure to know that someone ate because of me.

“I thank DRDAR so much for this programme. There is something we got from this programme. I wish it could continue and benefit those who will graduate after us.

“With employment scarce, the department’s programme is relevant because it teaches us to be independent and I like that.”

Tisana says the availability of land limited them when it came to practical work, but during his placement as part of the programme he learnt how to produce on a large scale and sell the produce to customers.

“That excites me a lot and is so great, because in reality, when you progress, you are able to create jobs. I want to start my own enterprise,” he said.

In the current financial year, DRDAR MEC Nonkqubela Pieters announced that R10.9m was allocated for the programme to place 120 graduate interns in various commercial agriculture enterprises from March 2021, with them exiting at the end of March 2023.