Momentum Group Foundation placed its Women in Farming programme centre stage when the Mzansi Young Farmers Indaba convened recently in Pretoria.
Widely regarded as Africa’s foremost platform for young farmers and agripreneurs, the Indaba offered a dynamic space for learning, networking and opportunity creation.
Across two days, delegates attended keynote addresses, technical workshops, panel discussions and one-to-one mentoring sessions. They explored pressing themes such as land access, market integration, funding and best practice. National Assembly Speaker, Thoko Didiza urged a fundamental reform in youth land access and finance, emphasising the need for inclusive policy and private-sector collaboration to dismantle systemic barriers, while Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen streamed his keynote, reinforcing young small-scale farmers’ critical role in the sector.
On the panel, Nkosinathi Mahlangu, Head of the Youth Employment & Entrepreneurship Portfolio at Momentum Group Foundation, highlighted the specific challenges that young women encounter in agriculture.
“Young female farmers play a vital role in food security and rural development, yet they remain constrained by systemic, cultural and economic obstacles,” he said. “Land-transfer customs that reinforce power imbalances, restricted access to credit and advisory services misaligned with their needs often confine them to subsistence production. A lack of vocational training and tailored mentoring further impedes their progress towards commercial farming.”
Mahlangu pointed to key learnings from the Foundation’s KwaZulu-Natal cohorts, including improved crop yields after mentoring, successful market-linkage pilots and enhanced financial management and record keeping among participants.
The Women in Farming (WIF) Program, under the Momentum Group Foundation, has made significant strides in empowering young women entrepreneurs in the sector, through:
- Technical training and mentorship: Equip farmers with essential skills in business operations.
- Commercialization plans: Develop commercialization plans which align with market needs and ensure sustainability.
- Support infrastructure development: Assist farmers in acquiring and improving necessary infrastructure to enhance productivity and market readiness.
- Access to equipment: Assist farmers with accessing affordable options for leasing or procuring essential farming equipment and machinery.
- Market access: Connect farmers to reliable markets through formal offtake agreements and digital platforms.
He went on to stress the importance of robust partnerships in surmounting these hurdles.
“Partnerships with NGOs, government agencies and private agribusinesses supply the essential bridges across barriers such as land tenure and credit constraints,” Mahlangu explained. “Through structured mentoring, these organisations provide technical expertise, market linkages and financing frameworks that individual farmers cannot secure alone.”
Turning to long-term sustainability, he outlined strategies for ensuring that participants graduate as independent agripreneurs. The Foundation’s model encourages farmers to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset, diversify their product mix to mitigate price volatility and engage in contract-farming arrangements with buyers.
“We believe in a future where no aspiring female farmer is held back by lack of land, finance or know-how,” he concluded. “Our commitment is to ensure that every participant is empowered to thrive as a sustainable agripreneur.”
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