I bumped into a discussion about SA farmers planning to leave the country for Georgia on CNBC Africa on Dstv. The topic caught my attention because in the S2S meeting we had in October we touched on land and farming.
It is said there is lots of farming opportunities in Georgia because the Georgians are not interested in farming anymore and would not mind to have foreign farmers using their land to grow their agricultural base. SA farmers are up and about and excited to take up this venture because they are afraid that land grabbing might happen in SA soon (well I hope it doesn't!!).
Someone raised a concern that if this migration of farmers happens it might create a problem for South Africans because we will reach a stage where we are unable to feed ourselves due to the shortage of farmers.
This topic had my little business mind working, I asked myself if I shouldn't be making friends with the farmers and learn a thing or two about farming. Why do we have to wait until things get worse?? Imagine how expensive food will be if we have to import even the food we used to grow in our land.
Just imagine if this Georgia deal is successful, goverment will have to come with a plan to encourage people to farm. Someone has to farm and never let the country go hungry. I do not want to stress about going hungry but surely why not entertain the thought of being a farmer as long as I get start-up finance. Shoooo!! why does it sound so hectic, maybe I should just wait for hunger.
FARMING
Im one of the people who is also interested in farming,i originally come from the rural areas,a place called Mukubyane in the North west,the nearest town is Warmbad,there was a huge land that was used for farming,until such time that the local people decided to take the land from the farmer and declared that ,they would farm the land.Today it is so dissapointing to learn that,that huge land is not used by the local people anymore,it is even growing thorns,is slowly becoming a bush,by then,the farmer used to employ more than 50 people,i have teamed up with a few members and organized a business plan on farming,we want to start a green house,where we will grow peppers,we have applied for funding from Agri-Sa.We are still waiting for the response.Surely,only a few people take farming serious,especially at the rural areas.