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November 2016
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Grain producer winners
shaping the future
O
n 14 October the grain industry gave recognition to and
joined in the celebrations of the grain producer winners
at a prestigious event held at The Theatre on Track in
Midrand, Gauteng.
Mr Jozua du Plessis from Delmas, who received the Grain SA/
Syngenta Grain Producer of the Year award, is one of the smart
producers who can adapt, grow and counter agricultural challenges.
The other two finalists in this category were Messrs Dissie Kruger
from Orania and Piet and Johan Willemse from Jireh Boerdery in the
Riversdal area.
‘Through 20 years of conservation farming the Willemse twins,
Piet and Johan, have increased their yields and ensured a sustain-
able base for growth on many levels. Dissie and Jozua both had
to steer their businesses through the drought of 1982 – producers
who have learnt to leave nothing to chance,’ Mr Antonie Delport
(managing director: Syngenta SA) mentioned during his speech.
He said that like these producers we all have the ability to shape
the future. ‘Soothing our minds with “out of the box thinking”, is
not good enough anymore. Thinking is passive. Let us move to “act-
ing outside the box” through partnerships, sustainable strategic
implementation, experimenting and measurement,’ Delport said.
But what prevents us from going over to action? ‘In my view the
predominant obstacle with implementation is not telling our agri-
cultural story often enough and in the right way.’ He provided
three questions that first needed to be answered: ‘What do we
do?; Why we do what we do?; and How do we do what we do? This
story then needs to be told in a persuasive way in an attempt to
mobilise the right influences to support positive sustainable change
to all food producers in South Africa,’ he explained.
New Era, Smallholder and Subsistence
winners – múst read stories
Messrs Frans Mokoena (Grain SA/Absa/John Deere Financial New
Era Commercial Farmer of the Year), Sizwe Ngwenya (Grain SA/Syn-
genta Smallholder Farmer of the Year) and Mzwayi Zuma (Grain SA/
Absa Subsistence Farmer of the Year) also had heart-warming sto-
ries to tell during a DVD presentation at the awards ceremony.
‘You will be inspired by the stories of these gentlemen – where
they come from and what they have achieved (
read their stories
on page 18, 22 and 23
). You will be even more inspired by where
these gentlemen will be in a few years from now – when we shall be
celebrating these gentlemen’s commercial success stories,’
Mr Caleb Varner (manager: Retail Finance Sub-Sahara Africa,
John Deere Financial) said just before the DVD presentation.
Absa is proud to sponsor the New Era Commercial Farmer of
the Year award in partnership with Grain SA and John Deere
Financial. ‘We have experienced the successes, transformation and
harvest of a fruitful partnership,’ Mr Cobus Wells (head: Absa Agri-
Business Africa) said.
Wells then emphasised the importance of transformation in the
agricultural sector. ‘Whilst travelling in Africa and in South
Africa I have seen the successes of commercial producers and off-
takers taking subsistence and small scale farmers under their
wings – and what it did not only for the individuals’ wealth, but
also to the immediate communities as it opened doors for new
small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs),’ he said.
During his travels, he also noticed that farmers across Africa all
share common characteristics of passion, energy, endurance and
the drive to grow and prosper.
GRAIN SA
Awards ceremony
RUTH SCHULTZ,
SA Graan/Grain
contributor and
HELENUS KRUGER,
photos
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