Editorial
5
January 2014
THE NEXT GENERATION
Jannie de Villiers, Uitvoerende hoofbestuurder/CEO
A
t the end of each year all the agricultural magazines and media
request a forecast for the new year. After preparing a document for
this purpose, I was actually surprised at the good prospects in the
demand for grains and oil seeds.
Yes, I know there are also those issues that do not look too good, but
those are mostly matters that we can do little about. The whole season
was a month late. The producers from the south had to wait an extra
month for the rains to dissipate so that they could start the harvest and
then the producers in the north had to wait a month for the rain before
they could start planting.
Perhaps this is just something we have to take with us into the new year:
Let’s not worry about that which we can do nothing about. The process
of land reform will continue and the weather and markets will remain
unpredictable. Poor service delivery and corruption will most likely, like
the poor, remain with us in 2014.
However, one cannot deny the fact that the demand for grains and oil
seeds continue to grow strongly. With the ever growing focus on agri-
culture in Africa and the food security it must provide, good times for
producers are forecasted.
In 2014 our attention as organisation will remain focused on sustainabil-
ity. All this expected growth in demand (locally and/or internationally)
must be translated into profitable production opportunities.
As part of sustainability, we as organisation will be looking at our next
generation with new ardour and vision…Next generation technology, but
especially the people of the next generation. Where are the researchers,
agricultural economists, market analysts and leaders of tomorrow? Who
is training them? Where are the next generation farm workers who will
be manning our highly sophisticated implements? They are probably
somewhere in their twenties now, occupied by their cell phones, ear
phones and hormones! Maybe they do not yet know of gerbils, Sclero-
tinia and diesel rebates, but they are ready to learn about it – if there was
only someone to show them the way. In my reflections about the next
generation, I have also considered how wrong the word transformation
and transfer can be.
Transformation sounds like taking something from one and giving it to
another and then you do not have it anymore. With land it could still
probably work like that, but with information and knowledge it cannot
be similar. Surely, I do not lose something when I teach it to another.
We therefore need to develop a new image regarding the transfer of
knowledge.
In November I one day gathered the “youngsters” (mostly in their twen-
ties) of the Grain SA staff and gave them some basic lessons about life. I
also threw in a few Economics 101 lessons, just in case they missed out
on them at university; the outcome was however very positive.
Everyone had a better understanding about where Grain SA stood and
where we were heading. The reasons why an organisation like Grain SA
existed and the things they had to learn to take the responsibility for sus-
tainability and food security to the next level, were clearly explained to
them. Afterwards I felt richer and not poorer.
I had lost nothing, but was able to instil some knowledge into energetic
and talented young people for the benefit of our members and the peo-
ple of South Africa. It also gave me hope that irrespective of where my
children and as yet unborn grandchildren will one day be, there will be
new agricultural economists and workers to take forward what I have
been busy with these past 29 years, and they’ll be able to improve on it.
Best wishes for the new year and may you too encounter the opportunity
to transfer knowledge to the next generation, so that it may also leave
you feeling richer.
Almal het nou ‘n beter begrip van waar Graan SA is en waarheen ons op
pad is. Die redes waarom ‘n organisasie soos Graan SA bestaan en die
dinge wat hulle moet leer om die verantwoordelikheid van volhoubaar-
heid en voedselsekerheid na ‘n volgende vlak te neem, is mooi aan hulle
verduidelik. Ná die tyd het ek ryker en nie armer gevoel nie.
Ek het niks verloor nie, maar ‘n klompie kennis in jong, energieke en ta-
lentvolle jongmense se lewens ingebou tot voordeel van al ons lede en
die mense in Suid-Afrika. Dit gee my ook hoop dat, ongeag waar my
kinders en ongebore kleinkinders eendag sal wees, daar wel nuwe land-
bou-ekonome en -werkers sal wees wat dít waarmee ek al vir 29 jaar besig
is, kan voortsit en daarop sal kan verbeter.
Sterkte vir die nuwe jaar en mag jy ook iewers ‘n geleentheid kry om
kennis oor te dra aan die volgende generasie sodat dit jou ook ryker kan
agterlaat.
