81 / 92
John Deere enables farmers and
contractors
with tools to farm successfully
“M
ore than 80% of the land being harvested in
Africa is done by smallholder and subsistence
farmers, who achieve poor yields due to various
reasons, but especially due to the lack of mechani-
sation technology.”
This is according to Mr Len Brand (managing director: John Deere
South Africa). Brand says that land consolidation will not happen
overnight and therefore yields have to be increased dramatically
for smallholder farmers. “The benefits of increased yields will result
in an increase in personal wealth, employment, food production and
a slowdown of urbanisation,” he said.
John Deere recognised that they can play a role in helping small-
holder farmers increase their yields by giving them access to
mechanisation to help them execute more appropriate farming
practices. Therefore in 2011 John Deere, in partnership with
Batho Pele, invested in a smallholder education programme and
started with a pilot study in Zambia. “The Conservation Farmers
Union helped us identify 18 lead farmers, who all attended the
smallholder education programme. Since the beginning of this
programme there has not been a single failure,” Mr Carel Theron
(marketing manager: John Deere) said.
Taking into account that this programme is delivered in rural com-
munities where there might not always be electricity and attend-
ees might not be able to read and write, Batho Pele presents this
programme in picture format. The modules for small holder farm-
ers are: Farm management and administration; Mechanisation and
Crop production.
Education programme for contractors
John Deere also tasked Batho Pele to develop a new education
programme for contractors. This education programme had to
comply with the same rules as the programme above, but will only
be delivered to literate farmers. The content of this programme
covers: Setting up and running an agri-contracting service busi-
ness; Managing your finance; Marketing and customer care; Basic
agronomy (soil preparation practices; planting practices and spray-
ing); and Mechanisation.
The purpose of this education programme is to help entrepreneurial
farmers to take up contracting. “We piloted
this programme in Mount Ayliff, a rural town
situated 40 km from Kokstad and the impact
was staggering,” Theron added.
On 16 March 2015 Mr Unathi Mgugudo and
Mr Zandisile Dandala, two contractors from
Mount Ayliff, visited John Deere’s head
office to tell the media more about their
experience working as contractors on com-
munal land. These two contractors own
their own equipment and the Department
of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries hands
out contracts to them every planting sea-
son depending on their capacity. “We both
plant approximately 500 ha maize per sea-
son and our operations include everything
from ripping, disking and spraying to top-
dressing. The only thing we don’t do is har-
vesting,” Mgugudo explained.
Challenges on communal land
The department supplies the seed and fertiliser, while the rates
the contractors are given must cover the maintenance of the ma-
chinery, diesel and travelling. “Despite the challenging rates
these contractors get, they still manage to be very successful,”
Mr Modupi Mokoena (area manager: John Deere) said.
One of the challenges on communal land is that the concept of
crop rotation does not exist; hence only one crop per year will be
planted. “The rural community should be educated in crop rotation
and be educated in other crops such as soybeans,” Mokoena said.
Mgugudo says another challenge is to present the new concepts
of farming to the people in their community, since these people
are still used to traditional ways of farming (for example they are
still making use of mouldboard ploughing) and it is very hard for
them to convert to modern farming practices. “The community is
only convinced once you have shown them a demo of for example
ripping or disking.”
A contractor needs to work on a specific field for a few years to
fully understand the practices that needs to be applied to that field.
If you farm on a different field every year, you are starting over eve-
ry time. “Zandisile and I were lucky to start farming on fields that
has never been worked on before and we have achieved good results
on these fields. Consequently, the community asked the department
that they want to make use of our services again for the next season.
The community is demanding our services,” Mgugudo said.
Mgugudo and Dandala said that they will need between R100 000
and R120 000 per season for servicing and replacing their equip-
ment, if you take into account the hectares they are currently con-
tracting. “We will then be able to increase our capacity to do more
contracting work,” Mgugudo concluded.
John Deere, a leading agricultural machinery organisation, wants
to equip passionate smallholder farmers and contractors with
tools. “In doing so, we will hopefully get government to take note of
these initiatives. It is not a case of just giving someone a tractor;
you need to enable him to farm successfully and commercially,”
Theron said.
79
May 2015
RUTH SCHULTZ,
SA Graan/Grain
contributor
Zandisile Dandala (second from left) and Unathi Mgugudo (third from left), two of the contractors
who followed the John Deere education programme for contractors. With them are Carel Theron
(left) and Modupi Mokoena.
RELEVANT