81 The study groups are also a community platform for peer-to-peer learning; a place for discussion and sharing, where those who have less knowledge and skills in grain production can learn from more experienced growers who have already gained experience and graduated from the study group training programme. Developing producers enjoy acquiring first-hand knowledge from the more experienced members of the group. During this reporting period, the PGP Programme has been supporting 146 active study groups. At least six study group meetings are held with each study group, and Table 4 shows the number of people who have attended the meetings. During these meetings, producers are trained on all aspects of farming – production, mechanisation and management (at the different appropriate levels depending on the classification of producers attending that meeting). Province Attendance Eastern Cape 3803 Free State 84 KwaZulu-Natal 1421 Limpopo 2481 Mpumalanga 2157 North West 120 TOTAL 10 066 Table 4: Attendance of study group meetings. Beyond Abundance (BA) project (off shoot of the study group project) In the season of 2024/2025 PGP, with the support of the Sasol Agricultural Trust and SACTA, subsidised 20% of input cost per hectare to the BA producers. Table 5 shows the progress of this project since it started in the 2019/2020 production season. Year Contribution per ha Number of producers Number of hectares Average yields attained Producer contributions 2014/2015 R1 500 855 855 1,5 R1 282 500 2015/2016 R1 750 1 674 1 776 1,5 R3 078 002 2016/2017 R2 000 2 905 4 120 4,28 R8 601 622 2017/2018 R2 900 3 804 5 173 4,3 R14 802 964 2018/2019 R3 200 5 251 7 251 4,3 R22 544 258 BA 2019/2020 R3 500 5 104 7 000 4,13 R24 500 000 BA 2020/2021 R4 000 2 497 3 118 3,45 R12 472 000 BA 2021/2022 R4 000 2 778 4 073 3,8 R16 292 000 BA 2022/2023 R8 100 682 593 4 R4 803 300 BA 2023/2024 R9 000 565 573 3,8 R5 157 000 BA 2024/2025 R6 600 1 126 1 611,5 4 R10 635 900 BA 2025/2026 R7 000 2 049 2 814 - R19 700 000 Table 5: Progress of the BA project. PHAHAMA GRAIN PHAKAMA NPC
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