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LICHTENBURG REGIONAL FARMER DEVELOPMENT
The Lichtenburg Regional Development office is headed by regional manager Du Toit van der
Westhuizen, with support from Lebo Mogatlanyane. This office is located in the heart of a primary
grain-producing region and the developing producers here need more individualised support. In
the light of the fact that the producers in the region are largely bigger potential commercial and
new-era producers, this office has been mandated to primarily focus on services and support to
individual producers. The developing producers in the region have, however, expressed their need
to continue with study group contact sessions as well. The latter half of the year saw the Lichtenburg
team holding seven study group meetings with seven different study groups.
201 study groups are currently being serviced by expert agriculturalists and trainers.
Agricultural support services have been provided to producers who are active members
of the groups listed above and 10 259 attendances have been recorded.
There has been a total of 1 041 study group meetings in this reporting period.
Beyond Abundance: One Hectare Project
This season the Beyond Abundance project has
involved 2 780 active producers
. The producers
are receiving on-going support, field visits and training from Grain SA and other stakeholders in the
sector who have offered discounted inputs. The producers have all put their own ‘skin in the game’
by contributing their own funds towards the programme. The majority of the crops performed well
this season. Some regions had problems with too much rain, while some producers are still battling
with weeds. On average yields are still better than have been seen traditionally by these producers.
The harvest was definitely compromised as a result of heavy rainfall and this particularly affected the
grading of the maize at the silo door.
With more and more maize being produced, most producers
have struggled to manage the post-harvest load manually.
There has been an increasing need to support the automa-
tion of the harvesting and threshing for producers. To support
these producers Grain SA, with support from Bayer, was able
to procure maize threshers for at least nine study groups.
Participating producers and area planted
in the 2021/2022 season
REGIONS
NUMBER OF PRODUCERS
NUMBER OF HA
Dundee
272
391
Louwsburg
302
622
Maclear
294
296
Kokstad
803
844
Mthatha
660
1 044
Limpopo
209
428
Mbombela
240
372
Total
2 780
4 047
Project support was also given to these farms in the form of input discounts by Kynoch, Farm Ag, Bayer and the Sasol Trust.
FARMER DEVELOPMENT