Transformation Research Projects

Projects links

Grain SA Farmer development
The development and training of entry-level soy farmers and consumers with further progression to soy-preneurs level
Addressing food insecurity by supporting economic growth for emerging farmers
Promoting household production and processing of soybean as major source of quality protein (Limpopo)
Canola and soybean trial at Alice and Stutterheim
Mentoring groundnut farmers
Oil and protein seeds transformation initiative
Grain Farmer Development Association (GFADA)

Grain SA Farmer development

PULA/IMVULA Magazine and Training, Ms J McPherson
Grain SA

We believe it is the mission of the Grain SA Farmer Development programme to develop and capacitate sustainable grain farmers in South Africa; to increase farmers' contribution to household nutrition and national food security; and to ensure that the land available to developing farmers is utilised in the best ways possible, using modern information systems and up to date technologies. In order to achieve these goals, we recognise that we need strategic partners who share this vision and mission.

The Oil and Protein Seeds Development Trust (OPDT) has been a steadfast partner, contributing towards the promotion and development of the Oil Seeds Industry in South Africa, through consistent donor funding support to the Grain SA Farmer Development program. This partnership continues to make a difference in contributing towards knowledge transfer and skills development in the face of many challenges within the agricultural sector. This contribution is sincerely appreciated.

By working together, Grain SA Farmer Development and OPDT are effectively providing information and advisory services to the sector through key communication platforms such as the Pula Imvula magazine and the Grain South Africa Farmer Development Training program.

Farmer development in a time of pandemic

Apart from the very significant macro-economic challenges of steadily rising input prices, declining profitability and the impact of climate change, this year has also seen the drastic impact of an international disaster in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic which has left no country and no economy unscathed and created great uncertainty. There has had to be significant adjustment and adaptation and there could be no "business as usual" approach.

The top economist in the World Econimic Forum's "Global Reset Initiative" has identified three issues critical towards helping the economy recover. Three key pillars state:

Keep supporting people as long as possible;
Reskill the most vulnerable workers;
Don't shorten global value chains rather diversity them.

Furthermore in July 2020, both the ANC and Business for Africa highlighted the importance of prioritising recovery in the agricultural sector in South Africa pos-Covid 19. Issues highlighted as challenges to transformation in the sector and ensuring more inclusive growth are:

Poor infrastucture;
General logistics to move produce to ports and processing points;
The availability of finance for agricultural initiatives; and
Strenghten agricultural value chains.

The African continent in particular is severely challenged with half of the continent already struggling in the face of food insecurity and hunger. According to a concerned Jennifer Blanke, Vice-President Agriculture, Human and Social Development, African Development Bank:

"The continent is already grappling with food security challenges. Locust swarms in the Horn of Africa, regional insecurity and conflict, climate change-related droughts and flooding are destroying crops and the livelihood of millions of African smallholder farmers. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic potentially undermines the capacity of both short-term production and distribution. The challenge for Africa, during and after the coronavirus crisis, is to identify and rally around priority areas in order to accelerate a more rapid transformation of the food system".

At Grain SA, more than ever before, we are aware of the importance of accelerating farmer development initiatives to increase capacity, transfer knowledge and improve networks for developing farmers in the sector. Farmers need guidance, mentorship and know-how, to find sustainable pathways for their farming enterprises. Many must consider alternative crops as they adapt to more resilient and climate smart farming systems.

In South Africa, maize will always be a favoured crop as a staple food for both humans and livestock, but we believe the crops which the OPDT champions, like sunflowers, soya beans, canola and groundnuts, play a critical role in many local crop production cycles. The need to ensure that training in production practices; knowledge transfer systems and mentorship opportunities are made available to farmers throughout the season is increasingly more urgent. The focus on the food we grow remains an important facet of farmer development.

Food is so much more than just what we consume; food systems need to not only resolve issues of hunger but they also need to contribute to improved well-being, balanced eating plans, reduced diet-related disease and the health and sustainability of the planet! Grain SA believes the crops promoted by OPDT have an invaluable role to play to this end.

Farm visits continued — Not 'Business as usual'

The Grain SA Farmer Development channels of communication cater to a wide range of farmers and we hold that all developing farmers, regardless of size of operation, are deserving of appropriately designed support. Structures such as study groups and farm visits, training courses and cell phone media messaging services and newsletters like the Pula Imvula, all contribute to knowledge transfer and skills development to the subsistence, smallholder, potential commercial and New Era farmers. This information empowers farmers to make significant contributions to household food security levels and assists in developing small farmers towards building viable, sustainable farming enterprises.

These "normal" interactions have undoubted been hampered during the 2019/2020 season with the novel coronavirus pandemic making an unwelome appearance. The pandemic soared in South Africa into the height of the summer season and influenced final crop montoring, weed control and harvesting processes. It must be highlighted however, that in spite of the disruption and ensuing uncertainties, the entire Grain SA team has stayed in constant contact with the farmers and every effort has been made to lend solid and steady support to the farmers in this time of crisis within lockdown protocols for essential services.

Utilising existing networks within the Grain SA communications portfolio – the existing platforms have proved important, since the Study Group chairpersons could act as very useful channels of communication between remote farmers and managers or mentors using phones and messaging services.
The role of the Pula Imvula magazine as a tool of communication safely targeting a widespread audience with key messages timeously, was highlighted once again. Study Group chairmen reported the farmers' appreciation of excellent information made available to them in local languages.
Technology proved to be a wonderful tool with farmers using the WhatsApp platform to send photos of their fields. They could even send close-up photos of problems or matters of concern, and ask for advice in this way.
Grain SA Regional Managers were able to use a library collection of video clips built up over the years by the Farmer Development program, and they even sourced many other relevant video information bites such as those made available by Bayer, to share to their farmers via the SMS and WhatsApp platforms.
The Regional Development Managers have all continued conducting tours doing field inspections, monitoring harvesting processes and meeting with small groups of farmers safely and respecting all protocols for essential workers accordingly; and
The Managers have stayed in constant contact telephonically. Regional Development Manger, Jurie Mentz based in Louwsburg reported, "I just stayed on the phone giving advice and encouraging the farmers. It was critical that they stayed actively farming". Manager Johan Kriel based in Bloemfontein says those days he would have had study group meetingss he spent calling the farmers and chatted about what they were doing, problems they were having and the market trends. He also would warn them to watch out for problems in their fields like the fungus Alternaria and Sclerotinia. The chats with the farmers proved construtive and mentorship was able to continue unabated.

Example screenshot of Grain SA web reporting — An example of Grain SA web reporting

The Regional Development Managers did not allow lockdown restrictions to get in the way of them still maintaining control with the farmers to make sure they were coping in the crisis period.

In light of government lockdown regulations, all gatherings and group sessions were cancelled. This meant study group meetings and training courses were put on hold during "lockdown". It is hoped that these will resume in the coming weeks, with all relevant protcols in place.

Photo collage of upport and reporting continuing

This in-year report reviews progress on two platforms currently budgeted and funded by OPDT:

Pula Mvula magazine aticles; and
Training Courses.

Each project is funded separately. Project progress is reviewed in its own section.

Pula Mvula – towards building Agricultural knowledge systems

Knowledge and innovation have a key role to play in helping the farmers and rural communities meet challenges of today and tomorrow. It is essential to build stronger Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) to boost initiation and development of innovation projects, to disseminate their results and to use them as widely as possible.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION, 2019

Project M20/30A 2019/2020

The Pula Imvula is a source of reliable agri-sector information. The articles are very specifically tailored for developing grain farmers. Topics cover many aspects of production and marketing as well as other generic information that is useful towards equipping and upskilling the farmers. The aim is to ensure relevant information is transferred in a manner that is easily received and can be shared on within their farming community.

Within the broader development community there is a growing appreciation of the value of farmer-to-farmer extension in support of the more formal extension services offered by experts. If we can educate one farmer who can share the valuable information with 10 more, the network is widened and knowledge transfer is accelerated.

The other focus of the Pula Imvula team is to ensure information reaches farmers timeously so there is opportunity to make necessary adjustment in their planning.

Copies of the magazine are distributed freely to recipients because the magazine is funded by the different commodity trusts and supported by private sector participation. All articles as well as a full magazine are also made available online via the Grain SA platform. These can also be emailed to recipients in digital format on request.

Considering the critical importance of the role of oilseeds in the South African farmer's toolbox, we believe it is necessary to include information about the Oil and Protein seeds industry in a quarterly publication. The information will be according to the theme for the quarter and the same theme is used for the farmers' days, study group meetings and information sessions for individual farmers. This will be related to the activities that are relevant to the season and will include information on the production and marketing cycle of sunflowers, ground nuts and soybeans.

In light of the fact that many of our farmers live in remote or deep rural areas where on the spot mentorship, advice and knowledge about modern farming is scarce and difficult to access, we have come to understand the significance of the farmers holding this invaluable tool an attractive hard copy, colourful, relevant magazine, printed in an indigenous language that is more easily understood, in their hands. The mentors, study group leaders and chairmen all report on invaluable discussions and inspiration experienced by the farmers who have been able to get their hands on a copy for themselves.

Up until December 2019 articles were translated into 7 different languages namely:

English	Afrikaans	Sesotho	Tswana	Sesotho sa Leboa	Zulu	Xhosa	Total copies
1 684	336	1 718	1 022	237	5 026	6 459	16 482

Regrettably, as a result of new donor funding conditions set by the Maize Trust, the publication has been released in 5 languages since January 2020. The Afrikaans and Sesotho sa Leboa translations have been discontinued.

Herewith the current 5 languages are published; with 2020 monthly distribution statistics:

English	Sesotho	Tswana	Zulu	Xhosa	Total copies
1 915	1 691	997	4 997	6 432	16 032

2020 Project progress: articles in print

Farmers receive messages through electronic and print media. Printed media brings information in print form closer to the farmers and serves an important role in the absence of extension services.

Successful Agricultural Knowledge and Information System (AKIS) strategies are not bound to any one national system, they are globally relevant and include four main groups of actions:

Enhancing knowledge flows and strengthening links between research and practice;
Strengthening all farm advisory services and fostering their inter-connection within the AKIS;
Enhancing cross-thematic and cross-border interactive innovation;
Supporting the digital transition in agriculture. (Niels Röling, Wageningen, the Netherlands)

The Pula Imvula plays an important role in the diffusion of innovations and transfer of knowledge. The following articles have been published and made possible by the contributions from the OPDT. Links to the online article are provided:

Month	Author	Article
April 2020	Chris Cummings	Canola – Factors to consider during April
April 2020	Ikageng Maluleke	Groundnut Yield potential Analysis
April 2020	Retired Farmer	Harvesting and handling of Sunflowers
July 2020	Retired Farmer	Cultivar Reevaluation for the 2020/2021 season Soybean
July 2020	Chris Cummings	What to look out for in Canola as from July

The development and training of entry-level soy farmers and consumers with further progression to soy-preneurs level

Mr H Davies
Eden Social Development Foundation

SOY PRODUCTION SUMMARY

Farmers in Bergville / Free State area (Farmers & ESDF)

Henry Davies from ESDF facilitated this area.

Outcomes

Planting with the individual farmers has been improving year on year. There is a yearly increase in the size of the areas planted as well as on the yield wielded. ESDF is aiming to increase the yield per hectare during the new season. There were a few fields that were exposed to too much rain resulting in wet fields.

The farmers are of the opinion that it is a better option to plant soy due to the reduced theft of the crops as well as the better prices for soy. All of the fields planted in the Bergville area are situated on communal land whereas the Freestate farmers own the land on which the soy was planted.

Hectares planted
10 MALE & 1 FEMALE FARMERS IN 8 AREAS

Eden Social Development Foundation supplied the materials for planting ie. seed, inoculants, pre-emerge, herbicides, insecticides and foliar feed during the flowering stage of the soy.

Application	94.5 ha
Raw Materials supplied to plant	152 ha
Hectares planted	152 ha
Hectares not planted	0 ha
Hectares planted resulting in a crop	152 ha

Yield per hectare

The yield for these areas ranged from 0.95 ton/hectare to 3.162 ton/hectare. The average yield was 1.52 ton/hectare. The total crop yielded in the area was 231.59 ton.

Income

With an average price of R7,000/ton for Soya the total income for the area was R1,619,792.

Planning for the new season

The future projections for these farmers are to slightly increase the hectares planted and to focus on increasing the yields harvested per farmer. Eden Social Development Foundation plans to assist farmers in the same areas to establish study groups with the aim to meet on a regular basis to discuss soy planting and source expert advice to assist with questions and problems experienced.

Challenges

Planting
The farmers need to plant with 700mm row spacing in order to increase the seed planted per hectare.

Growing
There was waterlogging in some fields but this dried as the season progressed. It also helped when we sprayed foliar feed during the flowering stage.

Harvesting
Harvesting in the Bergville area is problematic. Some of the farmers harvest by hand and make use of threshers to thresh the soy. Other farmers place the soy on canvas and proceed to drive over it with a tractor in order to remove the soy from its hulls. Blowing the soy can take a long time if there is no wind to assist. Some farmers even resorted to using a leaf blower to clean the soy. The farmers have experienced crop losses due to a lack of efficient harvesting equipment. This is a serious problem that needs to be addressed during the 2021-2022 season.

The farmers in the Free State have harvesters available.

Prospects for the 2021-2022 season

All the farmers in the project will aim to increase the hectares planted as well as the yield delivered.

Workshop and Farmers day

The farmers attended the workshops and the attendees visited the some of the farmers fields during these workshops.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture visit to Thulani Mbele

The Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mr Sdumo Dlamini, paid a visit to the Makholokoeng Farmer Production Support Unit (FPSU). Mr Thulani Mbele is treasurer of the organization as well as a farmer working with ESDF. The FPSU received equipment and a combine from the government to support the organisation with commercial farming.

The farmers inaugurated the new combine by harvesting the crop that they have planted with the assistance of ESDF.

SOY PRODUCTION SUMMARY