Young Black Entrepreneur
YOUNG people are making strides in the Y agricultural industry not just as emerging farmers but in the commercial level as well. One of those young people is Sinelizwi Fakade, born and bred in the rural village of Upper Tabase in KSD Local Municipality, OR Tambo District. “I’m born into a small family of two children and a single mother who has sacrificed all she had so that we could become who we are today, the young black commercial farmers leading the agricultural change EC deserves”.
“My academic career has developed around rural Development, agricultural extension, rural resource management, food security, crop and animal production, farm business management just to name a few. My siblings are fully entrenched in the family business, they too span an academic profile consisting of mixed farming, food security and sustainable agriculture”, he said. Fakade was employed for four years as a provincial coordinator under the Grain SA Farmer Development Program.
His main key performance area was to develop, up-skill, mentor and train rural based farmers how to commercially produce Grain crops on land they owned or had access to. To achieve this, he had to develop a team of young people who would buy in and walk this journey with him.
“I advocated and led the signing of a formal partnership between Grain SA and DRDAR that would allow me to adopt and mentor 18 young agricultural graduates who qualified within the institutions of EC. Furthermore, this agreement would assist all farmers under the Grain SA program to get free mechanization on all their hectares which had inputs from the Grain SA program.
“This partnership would go on and commercially develop over 3000 black farmers, develop 30 black contractors into professionals and commercial operators on rural and owned land. This would further put 4500ha under commercial maize production as this was the dominant crop planted by farmers. The 18 young agricultural graduates were now well trained and well skilled mentors who would assist me in driving the commercialization of grain production across four districts (OR Tambo, Joe Gqabi, Amathole, Chris Hani).
Alfred Nzo was monitored by my colleagues then, who were also beneficiaries of this historical partnership between the two institutions” said Fakade. In August 30 2019, Sinelizwi resigned from his job as his dream of becoming a young black commercial Farmer was realised. He said private funders backed him financially after at least 30 attempts to access funding. Finally, he got a breakthrough to become what he always wanted, a high performing black commercial farmer who would strive to be part of the change EC needed to claim its rightful place in the agricultural sector nationally.
“Farming well, farming smartly and sustainably was one of my personal objectives. Parallel to that was to contribute towards driving commercialization and rural Development and not alienating myself from how the provincial government envisioned this process,” he said. Currently he is farming on 1100ha in Joe Gqabi District, producing 750ha dryland grain (maize, soyabeans, sorghum and millet). Plans are at advanced stages in introducing wheat into the operation as of the 2020/ 2021 production season.
Grain production will be increased from 750 to 1600ha this coming season on the farm and leased farms nearby. For all his hard work, Fakade praises his mother for playing a very big role in his success, “All of this became a reality due to the sacrifices of our mother whom today is also a qualified agriculturalist. One of his objectives was to make his mother retire from a teaching career of 25 years and then pay for her fees to go and study a three-year agricultural diploma and join him in developing the commercial farming operation of theirs.
“My whole family is actively involved in the farming operation and we are commercially producing grains. It’s something I hold very close to my heart ” Fakade said.
Fakade is also chairperson of the board at Ukhanyo Farmer Development an entity 100% owned by young agricultural graduates. “The entity is 10-months old and already has a record of providing inputs to farmers amounting to 300ha last year predominantly in OR Tambo District.
“Through their model, farmers can access production inputs cheaper than the normal rates paid for them in commercial outlets. They are able to do this through the networks he has built in his career. They are going into their 2nd season and all what they have done to date has been funded from their pockets as UFD members,” he said.