FARMER SUPPORT PROGRAMME
This programme is the Farmers Production Support Incubation Programme which is structured to mentor and assist beneficiary farmers through skills transfer to develop and increase sustainable food production and viable agribusinesses. It aims to enhance the productivity of emerging farmers to enable them respond to the domestic food supply, through the development of fresh produce production, farm management and necessary marketing skills. The project is implemented through the partnership of Ehlanzeni District Municipality (EDM) and the University of Mpumalanga (UMP).
Three cooperatives were selected for piloting the project, namely:
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Wayco
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WAYCO was started as a close corporation in 2006 and later registered as a cooperative in 2009.
The project as a back yard garden which later evolved into a larger scale farming cooperative. The cooperative is operating on a 9, 7 hectares of arable land.
The cooperative is based in Matsulu in Mobombela local municipality. WAYCO is 100% black owned and 80% of the members are youth and women entrepreneurs with knowledge in farming business. The main farming activity is vegetable production under irrigation.
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Buhle Besivuno
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Buhle besivuno farmers Coop, consisting of 40 members.
The Coop was granted permission to occupy (PTO) from the local Chief and are currently using the 9,7 ha unit for vegetable production.
Under irrigation the farmers are currently producing
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Tomatoes
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Unions
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Butternuts
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Maize
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And Cabbage
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Siyavuya
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Siyavuya Co-operative Ltd is a dual purpose production project producing citrus, vegetables, poultry, and Aquaculture. Broiler production is the core business of the farm. The Co-op produces about 14 000 chickens per month and sell to the local community. The co-operative has 5 founding members who all serve as the Board of Directors.
E-WASTE PROJECT
The Tirelo Bosha UMP Container-based Community Enterprise Project is an e-waste recycling initiative, a first to be piloted and implemented in the Mpumalanga Province through the community engagement programme of the University of Mpumalanga (UMP) and its community business partner with a 70/30 share holding.
The intention of this project is to create business opportunities for communities in the selected pilot areas to localize the full cycle of recycling e-waste within South Africa, and to ensure the diversion of e-waste away from the landfill sites. Through this Pilot, UMP, as part of, and amongst the few institutions that has been delegated and empowered to implement the project in partnership with local communities, will showcase the potential of the Province in ensuring that there is an opportunity to benefit from the higher value materials contained in the e-waste, which will result in further job creation and enterprise development.
Through the Tirelo Bosha Container-based Community Enterprise Project, UMP seeks to actualize the draft e-waste Industry Waste Management Plan (IndWMP) in the adoption of Tier 3 and 4 models to collect, refurb, recycle, treat and dispose e-waste, with a predominant focus of facilitating the effective promotion of enterprise development and job creation in the waste management sector using research and technology development.
The focus of E-waste collection in this project will be primarily in the Mbombela Local Municipality and Ehlanzeni district municipality.
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