Our Vhembe flagship

That the Nobel Prize for Economics went to Richard Thaler in 2017 is a clear indicator of the growing importance of behaviourally-informed policy. Thaler’s research underpins the World Bank’s Mind, Behaviour and Development Unit (eMBeD) and explains how enterprises should keep a respectful eye on realistic human behaviour to accelerate growth. “During our many years in rural development through enterprise, and now at our project at Tshipakoni Agricultural School in rural Limpopo, our experience confirmed Thaler’s conclusions again,” says Rensie van Rensburg. We call our approach “Business, Boxes & Behaviour” — by boxes we mean appropriate technology.

Our two-year agricultural project in Vhembe was supported by the CSIR’s Technology for Rural Innovation and Economic Development programme, promoting agri-entrepreneurship and job creation in the fertile Levubu river valley. Through mentoring, curriculum support, practical agricultural courses and the simultaneous development of incubator infrastructure and services, we helped school learners, young adults and older community members take their first steps towards running small commercial farms — despite 26 schools being burnt down during the Vuwani-Nesengani political turmoil.

PASA — Practical Agricultural Services for Africa — is a group of local black youth who pooled their talents for commercial small-scale farming. “South African youth is in dire need of practical upskilling, exposure, responsible mentoring and appropriate technologies to form a bridge from a neglected school system to a commercial farming system,” says Rensie. A key barrier remains access to land: even those with a tribal Permission-to-Occupy seldom had the opportunity to acquire the skills, exposure or confidence that commercial family-farm children grow up with, notes project manager Braam Cronjé.

What is needed is to maintain the level of engagement, education and upskilling of successive groups of young people in the same area for at least ten more years — unlocking exponential growth in the agricultural supply chain and nurturing a move towards agro-processing (already begun with Moringa production in Vhembe).

Read the full 31-page project overview (PDF)