1 | P a g e FARMERS NETWORK SOUTH AFRICA 163-167 NPO

Tell/Cell: 082 975 1341/ 073 847 7082Email:admin@farmersnetworksouthafrica.org.za

BOX: 91888MOUNT FRERE5090South Africa

Registration Number: 163-167 NPO

CHANGING HOUSEHOLD BACKYARD GARDENS TO BUSINESS

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RE : Household backyard gardens support

1. Title FARMERS NETWORK SOUTH AFRICA – Changing household backyard gardens to business

2. Background

Farmers Network South Africa after its research conducted in the entire Alfred Nzo

District has discovered that the majority are depending on the backyard garden and

the community is faced with a very serious scourge of poverty and unemployment,

insufficient economic activities, lack of societal cohesion while at the same time there is a

need of support and capacity building on the household .We intend to capacitate

them with various skills that can be better used to turn the situation around, through

the formation of small enterprises. Entrepreneurship is recognized as a major driver of

innovation and economic growth. Recently about 100 household have been supported with

seedlings and mentorship.

ORGANISATIONAL OBJECTIVES3 | P a g e FARMERS NETWORK SOUTH AFRICA 163-167 NPO

To assist all communities on agricultural activities and formalise their businesses

Work collaboration with other organisations that mainly deal with agricultural education, marketing and finance

To initiate the development and establish educational projects to alleviate illiteracy , improve and raise quality of agriculture

To collate information and market intelligence and make it available to household and FNSA members to assist them to successfully market their products with understanding of the overall supply chain. To especially consider market development strategies this can be of a value to the entire farmers and household.

CHALLENGES IDENTIFIED THROUGH VISITS

Education Most of the household highlighted that they lacked knowledge and information

with regards to government and private sector funding to emerging farmers and

how to look after their crop and how to get support from government

departments I.e. funding criteria and application processes as well reporting

back to the funder

Sustainability Judging from the fact that most household have been doing backyard gardens

for years but with no expansion to be business owners. Some are

commercializing but they fail to make it past the first 12-18 months of operation

it becomes evident that business sustainability is a major concern.

This household support program will play a major role in enabling people to start successful

businesses and produce great crops. This program will focus on developing individual entrepreneurs

and providing measurable impact in terms of business growth and job creation.

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3. Vision: To use the readily available skills that our households possess to establish black owned

enterprises to mitigate the scourge of unemployment that continues to disadvantages

our communities. Thus improving the revenue of the Alfred Nzo municipality.

4. Mission Increasing the successful development of new business, job creation and employment

in Alfred Nzo municipality

Improving household backyard gardens sustainability and survival rate

5. Target Audience - Youth in farming

- Adults

- Small and emerging farmers

6. Indicators of Achievementa. Having a considerable number of household shifting their mindset from aspiring to be

employees to being employers.

b. Increased number of thriving local businesses with great produce.

c. Improved local wealth creation and retention and an enriched cultural and social

environment.

7. Main activities a. Assessment

This will be a stage were the prospective beneficiaries and their business idea will be

assessed. This activity will involve validation of the business idea or the identified gap in

the market. It will encompass research on the industry and market conditions, on the

technicalities involved in the type of business to be established and required funds and

suitable sources of funding.

b. Workshops

Once a beneficiary has passed through the assessment phase he or she will go through

training workshops that will be held in conjunction industry experts and specialist like

5 | P a g e FARMERS NETWORK SOUTH AFRICA 163-167 NPO

Limekilns Group and other organizations to ensure that quality programs are delivered.

The workshops will encompass the following:

Crop, piggery and poultry production Basics of business principles Management of personal and business finance Basic principles of compiling a business plan Business sustainability Computer literacy

c. Business startup and compliance

This stage will involve a basic guide on how one can formalize his or her business. Our

beneficiaries will be linked with relevant business services providers in order to ensure

that their business is compliant. It will involve:

Registration of the business as an entity with CIPC

Registration with the South African Revenue Services

Application for BEE certificate

Registration with regulatory authorities based on the type of business.

Through the assistance of industry experts and accredited business advisers our

beneficiaries will be provided with mentorship to ensure that their businesses are

managed profitably and sustainably. The mentorship will ensure that our beneficiaries

are developed into self-sufficient entrepreneurs. The mentorship will be comprised of

the following business fundamentals (amongst other things):

Business branding

Product development

Technical marketing advise

Identification of business constrains and relevant method of

dealing with them

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Our program will link the beneficiaries with other entrepreneurs to assist in building a

support system that will encourage robust discussions, business debates, sharing of ideas

and experiences. The network service link will involve the hosting of seminars with relevant

industry NGOs, business chambers and government business funding and support

institutions.

8. Potential Partners - Financial Institution FNB

- Limekilns Group

- Hat Training and development

- Municipality

- LED

- Rural development

- Dept of Agriculture

- Dept of social development

- SEDA

- GEP

MONITORING,EVALUATION AND MENTORSHIP

Beneficiaries will be assigned a business mentor to help them take off their business from the ground

and to implement all the skills learned during the course of the programme. Farmers Network South Africa with the assistance of Limekilns Group and Hat training and development will be monitoring the

business practices of the beneficiaries.

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The detailed business planning can be provided for funding application to enable this initiative as a pilot

project in all provinces of the Republic of South Africa.

THIS HOUSEHOLD SUPPORT PROGRAM IS A INITIATIVE OF FARMERS NETWORK SOUTH AFRICA IT DOES NOT INTEND TO REPLICATE ANY PROJECT SIMILAR TO THIS IN R.S.A BUT TO

ASSIST OUR COMMUNITIES.

Request

We can do more if we can be helped with funding to improve people’s lives and use the land that we have to plant food to feed the nation .

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