NELSPRUIT – The Agricultural Research Council (ARC) together with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) will provide training  from September 16- 27.

The 100 agricultural para-professionals who will participate have been selected from Nkomazi and Bushbuckridge local municipalities.

The aim of the project is to encourage communities to develop small vegetable gardens in their areas and not to depend on commercial farming.

“The participation of young people is very critical as we want them to grow their own food and to enter mainstream agriculture,” said the project manager, Mr David Modise.

After training, the participants will be given seeds to start their own gardens and will also be provided with further mentorship.

The two-week training will include soil preparation, pest control and disease identification in plants.

It will also include practical training and assessment by the highly trained ARC facilitators.

As part of the DRDLR’s Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP), 84 students have been trained in small vegetable gardens in each province during the first phase.

The second phase of training has so far seen a total of 535 trainees, 67 from the Eastern Cape, 99 from the Free State, 87 from the Western Cape, 93 from Gauteng, 102 from Northern Cape and 87 from Limpopo.

The CRDP’s objective is to tackle unemployment and hunger in the country.

“The ARC is proud to be working with this department on this project which is core to our mandate of providing scientific leadership for all stakeholders, particularly the resource-poor rural communities, through our research and development, technology transfer and dissemination initiatives,” concluded Modise.