Corporate Social Review Magazine 1st Quarter 2012 | Page 38

everything I know...” he says.
A survey done in 2009 shows that
90% of alumni are self employed.
80 % of these are farmers, 53 %
produce on a commercial level,
and 39 % at a semi commercial
level. Only 8% have remained subsistence farmers.
Buhle as an organisation also rises
to challenges. In the last 15 years,
the international donor community,
which has been supporting the
NPO sector, started requiring that
local organisations generate a significant portion of their own income.
This was a “big ask” for organisations who focus on the business of
people development, not profits.
It was a time when many organisations closed their doors. Buhle
however, immediately rose to this
challenge by establishing income
generating farming activities on
the training farm. Buhle now generates 18% of its R4 million annual
budget.
But 18% of R4 million is obviously
not enough. Over the years Buhle has been fortunate enough to
have partnered with national and
international funders who are also
passionate about training emerging farmers and contributing to the
long term sustainability and stabili-

36

ty of the agricultural sector in South
Africa.
Monsanto Fund (USA)
gave the seed funding needed to
the organization when it started,
and it has continued to suppo rt
Buhle since inception. . In addition to Monsanto, Buhle remains
grateful and indebted to many local corporate funders: The Maize
Trust, Standard Bank, Tongaat Hulett Starch, Omnia, Tiger Brands
and Afgri Operations have been
big supporters of Buhle in the past
10 years. Without these partners,
Buhle would not have existed, and
graduates like Ellen, Jeremiah and
Lawrence would not be where they
are today.
Buhle sits in a hot seat in terms
of its current developmental challenges. Government has stated
that by the year 2014, 30% of land
needs to be in the hands of previously disadvantaged farmers. Buhle’s mission is to enable these new
and emerging farmers to establish
themselves in viable farming businesses. As Neil quite rightly says,
“If a previously disadvantaged
person receives a piece of land,
without any idea of the enormity
of what lies ahead, surely such an
enterprise is doomed to fail? We
need to train and support that person so that they can use the land
productively, so that he or she can

CORPORATE SOCIAL REVIEW

Students at Buhle

generate food, provide jobs, secure livelihoods from agriculture
and build the agricultural sector”.
Buhle’s vision is to expand into
other provinces and agro-regions
in South Africa, and to establish
Farmers’ Academies in these areas. At the moment trainees come
from all over the country, but significant costs could be cut and
more people could be trained if
their model could be replicated.
“It’s a huge task”, Neil admits, “particularly if one looks at the funding
challenges. But we at Buhle are
passionate about our work, and
we believe that with the right donor
partners, we can turn a looming
tragedy, into one of South Africa’s
biggest success stories.”