We have trained more than 886 beneficiaries in Business Skills Management in SADC and 1173 in Technical Business Skills. These include Bee Keeping, Clothing Manufacturing, and Juice Manufacturing from Aloe amongst others. We have also supported more than 397 SMME’s across the country, including more than 30 cooperatives (with 171 beneficiaries).
One of the most basic stumbling blocks to successful Enterprise Development is the critical lack of business knowledge fundamentals. Without supporting business development services and training, many new farmers and entrepreneurs are doomed to failure due to a lack of experience, business and technical skills. For this reason, Skills Development remains an essential element of our programme interventions and is highlighted in the report, along with our various business development services, including mobilisation of capital and general business advice. We would also like to feature some of our key projects, including the Vaalharts Emerging Farmer Capacity Building Project and the ButhaButhe Abattoir, and celebrate one of our success stories.
Working together with our key partners and stakeholders is vital to the sustainability and realisation of our Enterprise Development ventures and our combined efforts have yielded many positive results. For this we are grateful and applaud their support.
Vaalharts emerging farmer capacity building project
The Vaalharts Irrigation Scheme is one of the largest irrigation schemes in the world and covers almost 370 square kilometres in the Northern Cape. Named after its major tributaries, the Vaal River and the Harts River, the scheme provides irrigation water to thousands of hectares of farm land and several nearby towns through a network of canals over a thousand kilometers long. The MDA is currently participating in a multi-stakeholder project that seeks to enable approximately 700 Vaalharts Water Scheme emerging farmers in the three sub districts of Taung, Vaalharts and Spitskop (Klipdam/Barkly). Initiated by the Vaalharts Water Use Association (VHWUA), a parastatal that manages the Vaalharts Irrigation Scheme, the project is broken into two parts, namely:
a) Emerging Farmer Capacity Building Workshop b) Smart Farm Project
Key partners and stakeholders
