Young entrepreneurs in the agri sector

One of the objectives of HGA Learn and Grow is to see individuals equipped with skills and experience to be able to improve the food security in their home communities and ideally through the establishment of sustainable new businesses that will provide new employment opportunities in those areas. Zikhona Bhantshi is a shining example of this coming into fruition.

Zikhona graduated in October 2021 and in the time it took DHET to process her paperwork before awarding her qualification, her and her friend Athayanda Mdanyana had already registered a cash crop business and secured a market for their produce through the Boxer in Bizana.

Not long after, after submitting multiple funding proposals they found favour with the National Youth Development Programme as well as through their local municipality which allowed them to fence and cultivate 1Ha in 2022. Move ahead 3 years and the duo are still going strong, now cultivating within a fenced area of 5Ha with access to a further 5Ha. They have had success in planting everything from cabbage, spinach and butternut to potatoes and sugar beans. For much of this period they have been employing up to 8 people on the farm and the exciting recent development is that they are now hosting 7 students from the Esayidi College who are undertaking their in-service training on the farm.

Something that has been a challenge for the business for some time has been that it does not have access to its own mechanisation nor vehicles to transport its produce to its market. Despite this, significant success has been achieved and the two are an excellent example to other youth with a dream of a career in the agri sector.