The main goal of the Sernick Emerging Farmers Programme is to assist the emerging farming sector and integrate the successful farmers into the commercial farming sector. The Sernick Group has always recognised the importance of assisting emerging farmers and pleased to have joined forces with the Jobs Fund and local municipalities to make the initiative possible.

Tier 1 farmers are given SETA accredited training and an opportunity to exchange their old stock with good quality cattle that fetch higher prices at the market. Tier 2 farmers equipped with technical skills to enable them to develop their herds while maintaining healthy cash flows to meet their working capital requirements. Tier 3 farmers are selected from Tier 2 and mentored and upskilled into viable commercial entities with their reproductive capacity. These Tier 3 farmers are given the opportunity to acquire shares in Sernick Wholesale, a new company that’s established to consolidate the group’s wholesaling operations.

“To see our emerging farmers succeed as commercial farmers makes us extremely proud and ultimately it means that the programme is successful and meeting our expectations,” says Project Manager of the Sernick Emerging Farmers Programme, Petro Naudé.

However, our farmers from Tier 2 and 3 have recently been awarded various awards which are added feathers in the Sernick Emerging Farmers Programme cap.

We would like to extend a warm congratulations to the following farmers who we’re extremely proud of:

Nancy Lesia (Tier 2) from Rosendall won the DAFF Top Female Entrepreneur MEC Special Award in the Free State.

Mojalefa Mashao (Tier 3) from Wepener came in first place in the Free State’s provincial Agricultural Research Council’s Emerging Farmer of The Year Competition and second in the national category.

“All of this wouldn’t have been possible without the Sernick Group’s Emerging Farmers Programme and the patience they’ve displayed throughout the year. I look forward to a long and fruitful future ahead. My family and I are very grateful for the opportunities they have given us,” says Mashao.

Selina Hlabedi (Tier 2) from Emfuleni is one of our newer beneficiaries of the Emerging Farmers Programme and the first runner-up in Gauteng’s Female Entrepreneur of the Year for Commercial Farming. Selina won R45 000, which she’s put toward paying off her debt, and a tractor.