In this week’s episode of African Farming (Honey, channel 173, Tuesdays at 17:00) SAPPO provides insight to their programs for developing and training new and small farmers.
SAPPO believes so much in growth and sustainability of the pork industry. Though the years SAPPO has learned that for them to achieve that, they will have to get involved in the developing sector space, said Kgadi Senyatsi, Head of Business Development at SAPPO.
“Small holder farmers contribute to employment, they contribute to livelihood, they contribute to food production, they contribute to the bigger picture of the economy and should therefore considered farmers. They need to be recognized and developed and taught so that they can run their businesses like businesses.
“That’s why we are here: to assist them, to lift them from that very grassroots level to where they consider themselves also as businesses, irrespective of the sizes of their enterprises.”
SAPPO support and develop smallholder farmers through a division called Business Development. Within this division they have various programs that farmers can choose from. “The first one that we are very proud of, is our mentorship program. In this program we assist farmers with production planning. We also offer accounting programs where we will get their incomes and expenses just to show them how their farm is performing.
“Through the mentorship program we also offer a veterinary services program. We appoint veterinarians to consult on these farms at the cost of SAPPO.
“And then the second program that is even bigger is the training and development is training through the SAPPO Academy.”
Through the SAPPO Academy farmers can partake in various programs. There are online programs where farmers can watch video’s in their own time or if they are unable to attend in person.
“We also have an on -farm training program where we go to farms and teach both the farmer and the workers that will afford them the opportunity to one day work with their own pigs.
“On these on-farm training days a lot of farmers’ input suppliers take part in the training. These are all your feed companies, your breeding companies, your pharmaceutical companies, your housing and equipment, and all the other companies that are involved in the industry.”
The reason these companies partake in this training is to connect with the farmers so that they can know the services and products that are on offer.
For more information, visit https://sappo.org/
