83 Most commercial lending institutions, including the agri-businesses are profit driven and risk averse (they need to work conservatively with the funds their shareholders entrust to them). PGP has been fortunate over the past number of years to be able to get production loans from ABInbev (now no longer available), SACTA and PepsiCo – these are interest free loans. We have also managed to have producers funded through a partnership between Standard Bank and the Kgodiso Development Fund – these are interest bearing. Unfortunately, over the past number of years, we have had many defaulting producers – mostly caused by unseasonal weather. This past season for example seemed to be a very good one for maize until the late rains spoiled the quality of the grain. We have producers who harvested many tons, but the grade was so low that they were unable to realise a relevant yield. Each year we try to increase the number of loans-funded producers as well as the size of their loans. Season Number of producers Total loan value (R) 2024/2025 33 35,2 million 2025/2026 in pipeline to be funded 48 70,4 million Demonstration trials and producers’ days One of the activities in the development programme has been the planting of demonstration trials and the hosting of producers days at these sites. The value of actually experiencing the different crops, different methods of weed control, different rates of fertilisation etc. is great as particularly in the deep rural areas, the producers are not surrounded by commercial producers where they can witness good farming practices. Event type Event date Service center Office Responsible person Attendance Producers’ days 2025-08-20 Eastern Cape Maclear Johan Nel 78 Producers’ days 2025-07-09 Eastern Cape Mthatha Cwayita Mpotyi 94 Producers’ days 2025-06-19 Limpopo Mbombela Jerry Mthombothi 70 Producers’ days 2025-06-16 North West Lichtenburg Du Toit van der Westhuizen 39 Producers’ days 2025-05-30 Mpumalanga Mbombela Jerry Mthombothi 98 Producers’ days 2025-05-29 KwaZulu-Natal Dundee Phumzile Ngcobo 81 Producers’ days 2025-05-28 Limpopo Mbombela Jerry Mthombothi 156 Producers’ days 2025-05-28 KwaZulu-Natal Kokstad Eric Wiggill 71 Producers’ days 2025-04-30 Free State Free State Jacques Roux 55 Producers’ days 2025-03-20 Free State Free State Jacques Roux 112 Producers’ days 2025-03-20 KwaZulu-Natal Dundee Phumzile Ngcobo 130 Producers’ days 2025-02-27 KwaZulu-Natal Dundee Phumzile Ngcobo 120 Producers’ days 2025-02-21 Limpopo Mbombela Jerry Mthombothi 85 Producers’ days 2024-11-07 North West Lichtenburg Lebo Mogatlaanyane 54 Producers’ days 2024-10-17 Free State Free State Jacques Roux 48 Producers’ days 2024-10-15 Mpumalanga Mbombela Jerry Mthombothi 59 TOTAL 1 350 Table 7: Days presented over the past year. PHAHAMA GRAIN PHAKAMA NPC
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