Sernick Emerging Farmers development Programme - Jobs Fund Summary of the programme

The purpose of the Sernick Emerging Farmers Jobs Fund project is twofold:

• The Sernick Emerging Farmers Jobs Fund project would like to improve the current herds and farming methods of emerging farmers in order to develop the emerging farming sector and integrate the successful farmers into the commercial farming sector.
• To create an additional 1433 jobs in the emerging farming sector and the Jobs Fund Partner Sernick. Sernick has partnered with the Jobs Fund at National Treasury, as well as the Land Bank for this project.

Selection Criteria
Participants must be emerging farmers that are registered on the Sernick Emerging Farmers Database and willing to comply with the rules of the Sernick Emerging Farmers Development Programme.
Please also note that all activities must comply with the legislation of South Africa.

The following overall general criteria will be in place for the Sernick Emerging Farmers Jobs Fund Project.

1. You must be from the Free State or within a radius of 150 Km from Kroonstad and Edenville
2. You must have the legal use of land as in :

a. Ownership / Title Deed
b. Formal lease ( more than 5 years)
c. Permission to Occupy PTO

3. You must have at least 25 cattle
4. You or your successor must have a Grade 10 certificate in order to attend the training. You need to
provide your own transport to and from training. We provide training, accommodation and food for
applicable training.
5. You or your successor must live full time on your farm.
6. You will need to sign contracts to enter any stage of the programme.
7. You must be willing to create permanent jobs for yourself and at least one of your farm workers within
the next three years. A job only qualifies if minimum wage as per legislation is paid for at least 12 months. Tier two and tier three sub programs of the project will have to create 2 farmworkers jobs.

The beneficiaries must comply with the following criteria to enter the various Tiers of the Sernick Emerging Farmers Jobs Funds Project.

Tier 1: Cattle Exchange Programme (Target of at least 660 farmers)

• Sign a Cattle Exchange Program Contract with Sernick.
• Sign a Training Contract with Sernick
• Sign a Use of personal Information contract with Sernick
• Undergo Training where the beneficiary must pay for own transport to training sessions. Sernick
  will provide accommodation and food as well as the training where applicable.
• The training for this tier of the program will be a combination of short courses depending on the
  outcomes of training needs analysis to be conducted for all successful applicants.
• You will need to create 1 permanent farm hand job.

Tier 2: Custom Feeding Programme (Target of 300 out of 660 farmers)

• Cattle Exchange in order to improve the herd.
• A combination of short term and long-term training depending on the outcomes of Cattle
  Exchange Program training needs analysis to be conducted on all program participants, as well as
  additional training needs analysis for successful applicants of this tier.
• Only beneficiaries that have own land and leased land with contracts for 20 years or longer will
  be accepted in this programme.
• All beneficiaries in this Tier 2 programme will sign Custom Feed Management Contracts as well as
  all the related supply and off-take agreements related to this programme.
• All beneficiaries in this Tier must create 1 permanent job for themselves as well as two permanent
  jobs for their farm assistants.
• The baseline for the custom feed programme beneficiaries will be updated every quarter.
• You need a boundary fence
• You need sufficient water for your cattle.
• You need sufficient grazing for your cattle
• You need basic animal handling equipment.

Tier 3: Primary Production Farming (target of approximately 50 out of 300 farmers)

• From the 300 Tier 2 farmers, approximately 50 farmers will be selected to participate in this programme based on merit, quality of cattle and the ability to successfully implement new knowledge.
• These farmers will get soft loans for infrastructure improvement, based on needs analysis, as well as an additional herd of animals that will be rented from Sernick. The farmers will own the offspring.
• These farmers will need to sign a Primary Production Program Contract with Sernick, which will include a herd rental agreement.

Please note that you must formally apply to become a beneficiary of this programme and we will visit your farm to assess your ability to participate in the programme. This is called a baseline survey. Only then a decision will be made for you to be accepted into the programme.
Please also note that we will not start with all 660 farmers at once. Intake will be spread over a period of 8 quarters.