United Way South Africa, under its pillar of Income generation, was invited to the City of Johannesburg - Food Resilience Unit, Partnership Establishment for Agroprocessors at Dlamini Multipupose Hall in Soweto.
Distinguished speakers emphasised a number of issues such as: 'We must deal with issues of Food Security as we have food producers and not only consumers; Empower SMEs by buying their products. An executive from one academy said that 'If you want to be trained as a farmer, you must be trained in the farm'. This bodes well with the 70% practicals and 30% theory of their courses component.
He further said, 'To be a successful farmer, you must have knowledge, skills, discipline and determination as well as access to the markets.' The CoJ MMC of Health & Social Development, Cllr Ennie Makhafola wrapped it up boldly: 'We have to fight the current high unemployment rate in South Africa. We must build a society that champions hardwork. Give young people the necessary tools to work and create jobs. Agroprocessing is very key to creating such jobs in our communities. Exposure is very key. People in the communities are not often aware of the opportunities.
Agroprocessing is about breaking the chain of poverty in our communities. The department will provide necessary support to Agroprocessors, working closely with its strategic partners.' (UWSA is proud to be one of those partners). She mentioned that 'There is no freedom without economic freedom and that we need land in order to address this agenda accordingly.
We call upon retailers to provide markets and access to our Agropreneurs. This is how we can achieve economic freedom in our lifetime.'
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