Programme Director:

Representatives from Price Waterhouse Cooper and NIC

CEO of Business Skills for South Africa

Farmers and farm workers

Officials from all spheres of government

Invited guests

Ladies and gentlemen

Molweni, sanibonani, dumelang, goeie more, good morning to you all and may I convey greetings from our Gauteng Provincial Government, led by the honorable Premier Nomvula Mokonyane.

Good morning and thank you all for coming to this important event, to celebrate the achievement of these farmers after an intense week of training. I would like to thank Price Waterhouse Cooper for contracting Business Skills for South Africa to develop the business skills of our farmers in this Faranani Rural Women Training Initiative. It is partnerships like this one that will ensure that we develop the South African economy and grow the contribution of agriculture to the economy.

The 20 women entrepreneurs who attended the training come from various business back- grounds. Their enterprises range from poultry production, vegetable production under tunnels (hydroponics), piggery production, catering, event management, property and engineering services. This shows the diverse areas of agriculture that are on offer in Gauteng. The saying that if you educate a man you are educating an individual but if you educate a woman you are educating a nation is appropriate for such an event as this one. These 20 farmers receiving awards today will contribute vastly in growing the economy of Gauteng and South Africa as a nation.

This broad range of women represented here today are testimony to the fact that Gauteng is a smart province. It is for this reason that agriculture in the province focuses not only on primary production on secondary and tertiary production as well.

Opportunities exist within the department and indeed throughout the Gauteng Provincial Government for entrepreneurs across the agriculture value chain. Not only are there opportunities for primary producers such as those who produce eggs, vegetables, broilers and other agricultural commodities but increasingly opportunities abound for value adding in line with our Agro-processing Strategy. These opportunities exist for those entrepreneurs who would like to produce according to market specifications, e.g. who meet the requirements of branding, packaging, grading, etc., and also for those entrepreneurs who are into construction, since the department allocates many millions of rands towards the construction of agro-processing infrastructure every year. This year alone R20 million has been allocated to the construction of agro-processing facilities. Female entrepreneurs should take advantage of these opportunities.

There are also many opportunities for entrepreneurs in the tertiary sector. Every year, the department hosts a minimum of five major events to consult with key stakeholders and to showcase key projects and achievements. Entrepreneurs involved in event management and catering must take advantage of these opportunities. There are more opportunities in the financial sector where Direct Financing Institutions (DFIs) are required to distribute funds to farmers through MAFISA. The department is also finalizing plans to revive marketing schemes. This marketing plan will be finalised by the end of the financial year. These marketing schemes will focus on marketing agricultural commodities especially for emerging farmers, to enable the farmers to focus on production.

It is expected that the skills acquired during this training these women we acknowledge today have undertaken will be implemented to improve the profitability of their respective enterprises. We expect to see them going back to their businesses to look at the positioning of those businesses, and how their training will provide their business with an advantage over their competitors. We also expect that they will segment their market and focus on providing products and services according to the needs of their specific markets. Likewise, we expect that they will use their newly acquired pricing and costing skills to improve their quotation capacity as well as their competitiveness. Finally, their business planning skills must be used for each new project that they undertake.

We have recognized that women do not fully participate in commercial farming, and therefore, in line with the Departmental AgriBEE strategy, we are encouraging women to become agri-business farmers. As such twenty three (23) female farmers were recognized for the contribution they made in the agricultural sector through 2010 Agri-Business Woman of the Year Awards Ceremony held at provincial and national level.

I hope, ladies, that you have been able to work together and network throughout the training, to share information and ensure that when you go back to your enterprises that you do truly change the way you operate them so that they are productive and sustainable and contribute an equitable share to growing the economy and promoting agriculture in the province

On Monday the department had a media briefing in this same room where we briefed the media about the programs of the department that uplift agriculture in Gauteng. Among the things we committed the department to was the promotion of cooperatives. I hope the training provided over the last five days will enable you to identify other farmers with whom you can form cooperatives that will enable you to increase your market share and create more opportunities for you in the marketplace. Forming cooperatives creates a platform where the you can learn new ways of production, explore new technology and interact with other farmers and service providers to improve production while exploring value-adding options and agricultural financial services.

A special thank you goes again to Price Waterhouse Cooper for this initiative. We look forward to more of the same training for our farmers. We have received excellent reviews from the women who attended this particular training and believe that it can benefit more entrepreneurs. Thank you also to the facilitators from Business Skills for South Africa for their excellent presentation of the various modules of the training.

Remember: working together we can do more!

Thank you.