This is a YouTube video titled "John Deere Africa Middle East | C120 Combine | Mthatha" created in August 2022. It features multiple speakers including the Chairman and Founder of Wakanyu Farmer Development, Edge Ondia, beneficiary farmers, and agricultural experts discussing the challenges faced by African farmers, the impact of mechanization, and partnerships with John Deere to improve farming productivity and commercial viability. The content focuses on agricultural development, mechanization, access to finance, and training initiatives to uplift farmers in the Mthatha region.
We here today just come and demonstrate the importance of having good collaborations with private sector around upliftment of the type of work these farmers are doing. We're dealing with farmers that have farmed for a long time and the essence of today is to come and expose farmers to mechanization and technologies that they've never been exposed to that will enhance their ability to produce.
Some of the biggest challenges farmers in Africa face is access to finance and access to good mechanization for their production.
I started farming in 2015 doing vegetables on fire at Mtata. Back in the days, we used to use a stay up tractor that would give us many mechanical issues because it's an old tractor and it's very difficult to find parts in South Africa for that tractor.
Rain farming traditionally here was done by hand, very old machinery and harvesting, especially harvesting, was done by hand and mechanical threshers. The problem with harvesting by hand is that it's time consuming. You can only do a certain amount in a day. The next thing is how you're moving your grain. It has to be done by hand, so it has to be put into bags, it has to be loaded manually onto a truck and being moved. And that's challenging, especially when you start harvesting bigger fields. You can't do everything by hand, it's just too much. You need to bring a mechanization into the picture to be able to grow it.
Ukanyo Farmer Development made a partnership with John Deere and then that partnership I'm the beneficiary of and I got a planter that doesn't have downtime this time. Everything that I do, I do it on time and it's up to my yield, about 3 tonnes more because I was getting 5 and then now I'm getting 8.6 tonnes.
I'm a 31 year old commercial grain farmer in the Yugi area. I'm also the chairman and founder of Wakanyu Farmer Development, an NPO that mentors and uplifts farmers to produce commercially on their lands.
What we did edge ondia is we came up with a SMART initiative to help solve some of those challenges that farmers are facing. The SMART is an acronym for Solutions for Farmers. Mechanization, Access to Finance, Reliability for better Yield and then training and technology.
In 2021, we were beneficiaries of a partnership between John Deere and UFD where they gave us a mechanization material. The quality has improved because we usually get 3 tons to 3.5 tons per hectare. And now we've started harvesting. I think we have about 7.5 to 8 tonnes per hectare.
A caliber farmer here is someone who doesn't understand their true potential. And you're dealing with people who that have just given up. If they're just producing their little gardens, that's it. And predominantly you're dealing with households that are woman led. All of that just is a burden that these farmers face day in, day out, not understanding their true potential. And that's what Ukanyu farmer development and the collaboration we have with various partners comes into the fore.
Now. Automatically you put them in a position where they can start getting better prices for their products, moving their products to new markets, so automatically they got more money in their pockets. So we are enabling emerging farmers to move commercially.
What mechanization has done for my farm and my business is that now I can be able to by my own. Mechanization also helped me to decrease the time frame that I was using back then. Like the work that I used to do in three months, now it's done in one day or two, three days. It has helped me a lot. I can use the mechanization to actually work a bit more efficient. And then the mechanization that I'm using now is top notch. The one for commercial farmers.
Once this farmer is introduced to our products and mechanization, we are able to provide them with good training and technology that is suited to their business. And that, in short, is what the Smart initiative is about.
The future is exciting. I think there's a lot of possibilities that can open in the area. With all the necessary support from John Deere and from Senves, we can definitely take these farmers next level.
It just goes to show we've always had a vision. The results and the yielding thereof is something that we just can't deny it's happening. That's why we're here today. All about collaborations and getting results.
