Lufafa farmers want farming skills to be compulsory in schools

Farmers from Lufafa village in Ntabankulu, Eastern Cape, have expressed concerns that food insecurity will remain a significant challenge unless farming skills are passed on to the younger generation.

More than 200 learners from surrounding schools attended a livestock and grain crops farming expo at Qhamani farm, where they learned about the importance of farming tools, fertilisers, soil sampling, testing, and production processes.

Local farmer Qhamani Zobotsho stressed the importance of imparting agricultural skills to combat poverty and unemployment, and to boost the local economy.

“From the Eastern Cape we are one of the poorest provinces yet we have a vast amount of land that is not used to its full advantage,” Zobotsho said.

“We feel that the little knowledge on how to handle this abundant soil has to be shared with the upcoming generations so that they may find better ways of doing what we are doing.”

Learners Othandile Cekuse and Oku Mphongoma expressed their willingness to pursue agriculture and contribute to the country’s food production. Cekuse emphasized the need to grow their own food to become self-reliant and reduce dependence on external resources.

“We learn that we should be able to grow our own food so that we do not depend on other resources so that we develop our own and become our own business people because as prices get higher and higher as time goes the economy keeps dropping. We need to grow our own crops so that we will be able to feed and have our own resources other than outside resources,” Cekuse said.

Food insecurity in KwaZulu-Natal

‘Taking ownership’

Mphongoma highlighted the importance of connecting to their roots and taking ownership of agricultural practices, traditionally dominated by white-owned farms.

“It definitely is. Let’s look at our economy, most farms are actually or rather owned by white people. And I think it is about time as black people we connect to our roots because this is where we come from. This is what we grew up to in the rural areas. We are told to go and look after the livestock and so forth. So, I really think let’s come back to this because it has money,” Mphongoma added.

Zwelakhe High School principal Nkosenekhaya Makhaba encouraged young people to consider careers in the agricultural sector.

“Excursions like this are very important for our learners. We have brought 237 Grade 10 learners here so that they can be exposed to agricultural activities holistically,” Makhaba said.

Unemployment

Meanwhile, farmers Makhosi Vuthu and Qhamani Zobotshe believe that agriculture can play a crucial role in addressing unemployment, especially in rural areas.

Vuthu noted, “Here in South Africa, the rate of unemployment is too much but by means of agriculture and installing knowledge of agriculture to the young ones is the way how to chase poverty away from us and also to create jobs whereas at the end of the day – or each and every table will have something.”

Zobotshe added, “I believe the evolution or the economic evolution of a country is determined by what a country can do. If it is industrialisation that means the country is doing good, but if there is high joblessness like we are experiencing in South Africa, it means we have to go back to the basics of agriculture. That is why I believe that this can be a solution especially here in the Eastern Cape.”

Farmers in Lufafa village believe that harnessing the potential of agriculture is key to addressing youth unemployment and utilising the vast unused land for food production, particularly among the youth in rural areas.

HSRC survey shows widespread food insecurity in SA