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Servicing grain producers’ study groups
The study groups are always the first point of entry into a new area. Through the study groups
our regional development managers have access to the producers on a regular basis and they
are able to train the producers on all aspects of production, marketing and general management.
The study groups also form the contact points for the planting of demonstration trials, hosting of
producer days, identification of producers for the advanced producer programme and recapitalisa-
tion programmes of the state and general information sharing in the industry, etc. However, as the
producers become more advanced, they express the need for more advanced information.
At the same time, the progressive producers assist the less advanced producers to progress. Servicing
producers in a group is more cost-effective than servicing them on an individual basis, and they learn
more from the questions of the other producers. Having the producers in groups makes it possible to
include them in other initiatives that offer them support.
Our experience demonstrates that most subsistence producers (0,5 - 10 ha)
experience the following types of challenges:
Making use of outdated production practices
Working on depleted and eroded soils
Having limited to no access to high-value inputs and technology
Having limited skills and training to apply new practices and to utilise new technology
Having limited access to markets and processing facilities
Displaying a lack of household food security
Displaying a lack of local economic activity and job creation
Producer development interventions at this level are aimed at encouraging developing producers
who have access to land to form study groups that meet regularly to access training and information
relating to the maize industry. Producers start at the study group level and then progress from there
– it is not all producers who can or wish to increase the size of the land they are planting, but
all would like to increase the yields they are attaining from their activities. We are also finding that
as producers graduate from the programme, they become invaluable members of the study groups
as they can pass on first-hand experience to the other producers. To address the grain farming
challenges that are faced by subsistence producers in South Africa, the programme employs the
following interventions:
Study groups:
organised producer groups where training, group mentorship and planning
are facilitated.
Planting and maintenance of demonstration trials:
demonstrating new technologies and
crop management strategies.
Producer days:
hosting producers to demonstrate different farming practices and performance
of different varieties, etc.
Mentorship support to producers:
providing 1:1 mentorship support to individual subsistence
producers throughout the production season.
Information dissemination:
Pula Imvula
producer’s advisory magazine published monthly.
FARMER DEVELOPMENT