W Cape trains emerging farmers
1 December 2003
The Western Cape province has launched a R2.67-million training centre at the Outeniqua Experimental farm outside George that will offer 47 different courses aimed at making agricultural expertise more accessible to disadvantaged communities.
Opening the training centre on Thursday, Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk said:
"The centre is important because it is part of a much wider plan to bring job creation and economic growth to rural regions in the province."
Van Schalkwyk told the gathering, attended by community leaders, emerging farmers, and the staff of the Outeniqua Experimental Farm, that land reform was only significant if it went beyond simply transferring the ownership of land.
"Education, training and skills transfer is what turns a land-owner into a sustainable and successful farmer," the premier said.
The centre will empower emerging farmers to develop their entrepreneurial skills and so stimulate the informal
economy of the region, Van Schalkwyk said.
He added that the centre would offer courses that were in greatest demand in the southern Cape, including course on vegetable gardening, irrigation, farm management, financial management, marketing, poultry, life skills, arc and gas welding, tractor maintenance, and calibration of crop spraying equipment.
The facility is the first of four planned for the Western Cape. Other centres will be opened in Oudtshoorn, to serve the Klein Karoo area, at Elsenburg College, and in the northwest of the province, around Vredendal, before the end of 2004.
According to Western Cape agriculture MEC Johan Gelderblom, initial training at the Outeniqua farm will start in February, and will target more than 500 farm workers, emerging farmers and farmers in need.
"We will specifically target the beneficiaries of our land reform programmes, with the emphasis on rural women and the youth," Gelderblom said.
Source: BuaNews
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