MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release
02 JULY 2018
North West Province’s Outstanding Young Farmers announced
Mahikeng-North West Province through Rural, Environment and Agricultural Development Department has acknowledged the contribution and hard work the young farmers have been putting in order to place the agricultural sector of the province at the apex of local economy.
These outstanding young farmers were honoured and announced in a spectacle ceremony, held by the department last Thursday, 28 June 2018 in Zeerust Town, after a vigorous vetting process by a team of knowledgeable and well experienced independent adjudicators.
Youth in Agriculture Awards (YAA) is an annual event by the department to recognise aspiring young farmers in the province and the excellent work that they do.
The initiative is in line with government’s rural development plan which sought to promote agriculture and advocate for youth enterprise development to enable young people to have access to employment and self-employment in commercial agriculture.
Entrants were competing in the following categories; Best Youth Enterprise Award, Best Youth Entrepreneur Award, Best Innovative Enterprise Award, Best Researched Journal Award, Best Youth based Cooperative Award, best Youth Commercial Farmer Award, Best Agro-Processing Enterprise Award and the Overall Achiever category.
Chickens for Africa from Bojanala District scooped an award for Best Run Youth Enterprise and walked away with total prize money of R70, 000. The award for best emerging youth enterprise went to Lekuru Farming of Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District and they walked away with a whooping R70, 000 prize money. The Best Youth Cooperative and enterprise award went to Optimum Harvest Cooperative from Bojanala District while the Best Researched Journal award was won by Bontle Mokone (26), a Masters student in Animal Science from North West University, Mahikeng Campus.
The main winner of the day was Thabang Mokwele (31) of Thaba-Kwena Projects PTY (LTD) .
Thabang, who won this year’s award for Best Youth Commercial Enterprise and overall winner for the 2018 Young Farmer of the year, is the farm manager of Thaba-Kwena Projects PTY (LTD)
Based in Lichtenburg town, his farm specialises with broiler production. The farm was started back in 2014 but was only registered in 2016.
To date the farm has ten (10) broiler houses with capacity of 15000 birds each producing at least 150 000 birds per cycle.
Through this establishment and the support he has been getting from government, Thabang Mokwele has managed to employ twenty eight (28) employees in his farm. Out of the twenty eight (28) he has employed, eight (08) are permanent employees while the other twenty (20) are casual workers.
The farm has in the past received a financial support of nearly R1 million from the North West Department of Rural, Environment and Agricultural Development. With it the department has supported the project with payment of electricity and purchasing of feed. Over and above the farmer has been receiving monitoring and extension services from the provincial department of READ.
After announcements of the winners, Thabang said he has been entering the competition for the past three years and he is glad that he finally won in his third year. “I want to sincerely thank the Department of READ and all the people who supported me to start my business. I am where I am today because of them, and for that I want to say thank you,” said Mokwele
For those who are wishing to have their own farming businesses, the 2018 provincial farmer of the year Thabang had these words of encouragement for them “nothing is impossible”.
The Youth in Agriculture Awards is part of department’s bigger programme of highlighting the significance of agriculture and the role of young people plays in the sector
Speaking at the awards ceremony, MEC Manketsi Tlhape said the Youth in Agriculture initiative serves as a motivational gesture to the youth to accept and appreciate farming/food production as a commercial venture, thereby taking up farming as a life-time vocation.
”The youth in agriculture initiative also serve as a succession strategy which will ensure young people become farmers and succeed their old counterparts and farmer parents who are dominant in the agricultural industry,” Tlhape said.
Tlhape went further to explain that the awards ceremony seeks to acknowledge, encourage and increase participation of young people in the agricultural sector, highlight the significant role played by young people in food security and the fight against the triple challenges of job creation, economic growth and poverty and to empower young people and support their involvement in the province’s economic transformation.
The runner-ups will be placed under departmental after-care programme for mentorship.
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Issued by the Communication Services Directorate
Enquiries: Ms Emelda Setlhako
Tel: 018 389 5684
Cell: 060 745 4020
Email: ESetlhako@nwpg.gov.za
Website:www.nwpg.gov.za/Agriculture/
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