By Johannah Malogadihlare
Gauteng agriculture and rural development MEC Vuyiswa Ramokgopa is seriously concerned about the declining rate of enrolment in agricultural studies, both at secondary and tertiary level.
“It is a problem. This indicates that young people broadly are not seeing agriculture as an industry that is aspiring to get into,” she told Inside Education.
She was speaking while visiting the Ekurhuleni Agricultural College.
“We want aspirant agricultural economists, technologists, farmers and agri-processors to flock to Gauteng to come attend institutions such as this because they should represent the highest level of agricultural education in our country,” Ramokgopa said.
While highlighting the need for students to acquire skills in the sector, she also stated reasons to invest in such skills.
“We feel it’s important to engage with you at this level, the agricultural sector in South Africa is globally revived. All over the world people look at the South African agricultural sector as a beacon of excellence we have in the commercial sector. We are leading in terms of technology, genetics, productivity and techniques,” she said.
The MEC said the department had offered graduates skills programmes and absorbed 68 students this year from the province.
Additionally, Ramokgopa said as the older generation of farmers were looking to retire, the department needed to ensure that young people were equipped with skills to be able to take over.
The department emphasised that agricultural skills were in demand globally. The only way students could differentiate themselves with their competitors, was to build relationships in the industry and participate in internships to gain work experience.
“It’s not about creating people who will go into the job market, but we need to create the models, entrepreneurs, businesses and future leaders in the industry,” Ramokgopa said.
However, Ramokgopa mentioned that she was encouraged by the progress that has been made by the college since it started operating.
The college was established five years ago and provides students with 70% of practical experience and 30% theoretical work.
She said it was important to expose students to entrepreneurial and tech skills, which would help enhance productivity.
“Agriculture is not about seeds, spade, shovel and ground; it’s about being able to mind the data and to produce most efficiently for where you are with what you have,” said Ramokgopa.
Furthermore, she addressed challenges faced by state-owned farms and that the department would also invest in existing land to run incubation programmes of the department.
“The idea now is to aggregate our investment, but also aggregate the power of procurement that the state has, to be able to ensure sustainability of these enterprises,” said Ramokgopa.
The department is looking at establishing its own state-owned farms in 2026, to be located in different regions of Gauteng.
“The purpose of these farms is to help address some of the challenges that we have experienced and that we have had from small-scale farms,” she noted.
The department wanted to use provincial or municipal land to incubate farmers who were new to the industry to be able to help them with research and drive their commercialisation.
The MEC also mentioned that the province’s agriculture sector was set to benefit from a government partnership between the Hunan province in China and Gauteng.
INSIDE EDUCATION
