You may have heard about different kinds of blah blah prenuers being created in South Africa Post-1994, sadly some with negative connotations. But no one can dispute that by creating agri-prenuers, the partnership between Anglo American’s enterprise development arm, Zimele, in collaboration with the National Treasury’s Jobs Fund, will help address the country’s growing challenge of food insecurity.
One of the flagship successes of the partnership is the Lambasi agriculture initiative – a jointly owned farming operation in the Lambasi Farms area in the Eastern Cape, trading as Fundirite (Pty) Ltd.
Now, two years since its inception, the Lambasi agricultural initiative will celebrate its second harvest after having successfully aggregated 900 hectares of arable land into a single commercial farming entity, representing 490 individual landowners. This was largely achieved through the vision of Paramount Chief, Inkosi Mthuthuzeli Mkwedini.
In addition to stimulating economic activity in Lambasi, the initiative has also garnered 100 seasonal jobs and significant off-take agreements for beans, yellow and white maize, and other agricultural produce with Farmwise Grains.
Worth highlighting is that Anglo American Zimele is also helping develop commercial farming skills amongst the historically disadvantaged individuals, through its Sebenza Fund.
Through the Sebenza Fund, Anglo American (the jointly funded entity with the Jobs Fund) Anglo invested R14 million in Fundirite to finance land preparation, input costs, planting, harvesting, training as well as the technical support provided by an international non-profit agency, Technoserve. As part of the training and development programme, 294 farmers have been trained to date in technical and business related aspects.
Shedding moe light on the programme, Hlonela Lupuwana-Pemba, managing director of Anglo American Zimele, explains: “Our approach is to support and elevate the aspirations of the businesses, communities and entrepreneurs we fund and support. These farmers believe that their business has scope for growth. As they expand to other crops, such as sunflower, potatoes, and beans, it is clear that the farming operation will spur much-needed economic development in the community.”
On his organisation’s behalf, Sagay Moodliar, Technoserve SA country director says, “When we started two years ago, we realised that many community members in the Lambasi area were farming maize and beans as individual subsistence farmers with very uneven outcomes on yields and quality. We saw this as an opportunity for the Lambasi community to come together and pool their land and resources in order to undertake commercial farming practices. The farming operation is creating economies of scale, wealth and addressing the challenge of food security.”
International food manufacturing company Kellogg is providing significant technical training and base-line research and analysis. “As a global food company, Kellogg has a significant role to play in helping to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”, commented Sylvia Radebe, head of communications and corporate affairs for Kellogg South Africa.
