More than farming: Township skills initiative equips youth for work and business

Avuyile Kalapa doing her practicals for Crop production at Afrika Tikkun Green Acres Farm. Picture: Nigel Sibanda/The Citizen South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis continues to deepen, but a skills development programme in Diepsloot is showing how practical training and work experience can help young people build livelihoods and create opportunities for themselves. As Youth Month draws attention to the country’s unemployment challenges, non-profit organisation Afrika Tikkun says interventions aimed at equipping young people with skills remain critical.

According to the organisation, nearly 4.7 million young South Africans are unemployed, while the youth unemployment rate sits at almost 61%. At Green Acres Farm in Diepsloot, one of Afrika Tikkun’s agripreneurship initiatives, young people receive hands-on agricultural training while earning an income and gaining workplace experience. Farm manager Ryan Geere said the programme currently accommodates 30 candidates from the Diepsloot area and has the capacity to host up to 120.

“We know that transport is an issue. They’re all selected from the Diepsloot area,” he toldThe Citizen. The farm’s daily operations expose candidates to a range of agricultural and business skills, from crop production and irrigation management to record-keeping, fertilisation schedules, and livestock care.

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Ryan said agriculture requires discipline and resilience. “Agriculture is extremely challenging. It’s not easy, and these candidates know it.

From the day they put foot on this farm, they realise agriculture is not easy,” he said. “My advice to them is just see it through, stick with the plan, stick with the skills you’ve learned and continue.” Beyond farming techniques, candidates are exposed to workplace processes such as documentation, data collection, production planning and teamwork.

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