COUNTRY FOCUS: SOUTH AFRICA
Massey Ferguson lends support to
South Africa’s emerging farmers
F
or three consecutive years, emerging
farmers throughout South Africa have
gathered as members of the African
Farmers’ Association of South Africa (AFASA)
in the aspiration to become some of the
country’s most competent and successful
commercial farmers. This year’s AFASA
Conference on Agribusiness Transformation
took place in Bloemfontein, Free State under
the theme, Farmers growing South Africa:
Creating jobs and trade opportunities.
Massey Ferguson, a global tractor brand
of AGCO, with more than 160 years of
innovation and experience, joined forces
with local distributor BHBW to participate
as a platinum sponsor at this gathering that
hopes to increase meaningful participation of
emerging farmers in the agricultural sector.
Massey Ferguson offers high performance
products and solutions, including
mechanisation planning across all farming
segments in Africa and is especially known
for exceptional product reliability.
The three-day conference facilitated
information sharing and dialogue between
farmers previously excluded from the
mainstream economy with various role
players in the sector. Together, they
tackled challenges affecting the broader
agricultural landscape such as access to
water and electrification, infrastructure
development, job creation, barriers to market
entry and government’s role in creating an
environment for agrarian reform.
embrace technology and to explore new
markets in order to ensure future growth.
“No region of the world has ever
industrialised without the agricultural sector
being first transformed,” she said.
“In our own country, we can attest that
the main sectors that drove the level
of industrialisation we see today were
agriculture and mining. However, there is
still scope for deepening our industrialisation
in those areas of our country which are still
under-developed but hold the promise for
agricultural development.”
The line-up of speakers included Minister
of Agriculture, Land reform and Rural
Development, Thoko Didiza; her Deputy
Minister Mcebisi Skwatsha; Deputy Minister
in the department of Water and Sanitation,
David Mahlobo; and billionaire mining
magnate, Patrice Motsepe. The need for development was also echoed
by Malisha Awunor, Human Resources
Director at BHBW at the Gala dinner.
“We are excited to play our part in
agribusiness transformation through
the development of farmers and more
importantly, building sustainable
communities,” she said.
Minister Didiza’s keynote address
highlighted the need for the sector to “Farmers, particularly emerging farmers, will
play a vital role in ensuring food security
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INTELLIGENTCIO
for South Africa’s future. We need to boost
productivity by bringing underutilised land
into production, supporting job creation and
community development.”
Representatives from commodity
organisations and the finance industry
were also invited to share their approach
to the transformation of the agribusiness
value chain such as effective retail finance
solutions to emerging farmers.
The conference concluded with a detailed
declaration and resolutions on how to
improve crop standards, create more jobs
and trade opportunities while for local
agriculture and highlighted challenges.
Massey Ferguson technology and a
range of product solutions were on full
display at the venue and the team from
the manufacturer AGCO and distributor
BHBW were at hand to confer on Massey
Ferguson’s integrated high tech solutions
and advisory services to assist farmers
optimise their resources, reduce operational
costs and increasing productivity. n
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