| Cedarville
Agri-BEE Village
Joblessness and unemployment is a tangible reality in the small
rural towns of the Eastern Cape. One such town, where this
problem is a growing concern, is Cedarville. However,
Cedarville, essentially a town which services agricultural
businesses in its area through input suppliers and farmers
co-operatives, has the infrastructure and human resources to
substantially add value to the agricultural produce produced by
commercial farmers in its surrounding area. The Cedarville
Farmer’s Association has taken the initiative to invite the
unemployed people living in the RDP housing within the town to
take hands and create a vibrant rural town, where value can be
added to an array of local produce before it is marketed further
into the value chain. Products that require value-adding have
already been identified as wool, meat, poultry, eggs, vegetables
and maize. Transport, packaging and logistics are natural
spin-offs to the value-adding of these products. The Cedarville
Farmer’s Association has requested Scientific Roets (PTY) Ltd to
help them in this endeavour.
This Project, for which funding has been secured from the
Eastern Cape EU-funded Thina Sinako programme by Scientific
Roets, will develop a comprehensive Business Plan that will
describe the various entrepreneurial opportunities that the
jobless people of Cedarville and the farmers of the Cedarville
Farmer’s Association have identified, develop a series of varied
value-added product ranges, identify the capacity building
required for each of the links in the chains, determine the
infrastructure and equipment needs of each venture and develop
the organisational arrangements that will govern the Cedarville
Agri-BEE village in an equitable and inclusive manner.
Furthermore, 50 interested entrepreneurs will be involved in a
business and technical skills training programme (depending on
the training needs identified through the study).
|
