Four young Entrepreneurs for Rural Access (ERA) – comprising two ERA teams and two individual ERAs – who were selected through the Young Entrepreneur Challenge Fund from Limpopo and Eastern Cape, received a 3-day training in digital tools and technology, 3 to 5 October 2023 in Polokwane, South Africa.
The training was organised as part of the Knowledge Centres for Organic Agriculture (KCOA) in Africa project, funded by GIZ. The Access Agriculture resource personnel were Vinjeru Mlenga, Entrepreneur Coach for Southern Africa and Blessings Flao, Malawi and Southern Africa Coordinator, who were supported remotely by Access Agriculture Co-Founder, Phil Malone.
The training brought together all the ERAs and partners from the Participatory Guarantee Systems South Africa (PGS SA) and the South African Organic Sector Organisation (SAOSO). Combining theoretical and practical sessions, the training covered the functions and use of a powerful agricultural extension tool – the solar-powered smart projector, which contains all of the Access Agriculture videos available to play off-line, off-grid and off mobile signal.
The training also included topics relating to facilitation skills for screening the videos, business model development, principles of agroecology and organic farming and a reporting mechanism for the ERAs using a simple mobile app for data monitoring. It concluded with the development of workplans by the ERAs.
The trainees visited one of the organic farmers in Polokwane, where they conducted a video show for practice with 22 organic farmers. They also had a chance to interact via a Zoom meeting with two existing ERAs, Happy Mbewe from Malawi and Zaali Nakalonga from Zambia, who gave them valuable advice based on their experience on how best to grow the smart projector business in their communities.
The Young Entrepreneur Challenge Fund has been set up by Access Agriculture to support young dynamic people, who want to create a business involving the dissemination of agricultural videos using the smart projector to help farmers and rural businesses, to make agriculture more attractive to youth and reach more women in rural communities.
Proposals for the Challenge Fund are selected on a competitive basis. The most inspiring and promising young entrepreneur teams receive the smart projector to provide agricultural video services to local farmers as part of their business plans.
