So you are passionate about agriculture and aspire to feed the nation? Awesome! You should consider improving your skills to become the best producer you can be. You can achieve this by completing agricultural training.
What to Look for In An Agricultural Training Provider
When you are investigating where to complete your training, there are a few things you can consider.
Location
The best decision is to find a training provider that is accessible to you – be it close to your home, or a place that is frequented on the route of a mode of transport you usually take. A person from Limpopo, for instance, will not be able to access training in the Northern Cape! Therefore, take into consideration where you and the training facility are located.
Price
When you are looking to increase your skills, you are already aware that you will need to spend money. Draw up a budget so you are aware of how much money you have available to spend on training and development.
There are multiple training providers across the country who offer a variety of agricultural courses. You can investigate what courses are most suitable for you and note which one the best price will be.
Field of Study
Agriculture is a broad industry. Entering this space means you must figure out what type of producer you want to be. Apart from choosing between livestock production or crop farming, you should know what type of livestock or crop (including high-value crops like tree crops) you are going to focus on.
The training you are going to receive must be in your field of study. Take note of which institutions offer which kind of training.
Accreditation
Accreditation means that a course comes with a certificate that aligns with South Africa’s National Qualifications Framework. It is better to receive training that is accredited than not.
Agricultural Training Providers in South Africa
Dicla Training Centre
Dicla Training Centre prides itself on providing learners with both theoretical knowledge and skills development. They started their training facility to address the need for training in Horticulture (tunnel and hydroponics). The offered courses focus on crop care for tunnels, open fields, shaded fields as well as greenhouses. Training covers all growth stages such as irrigation requirements, harvesting and marketing. Furthermore, they also offer courses that look into broiler production, and tractor operation. The animal production programmes cover topics such as recordkeeping and animal health.
All of Dicla’s courses are SAQA accredited and registered with Agri SETA.
Agriskills Transfer
Agri Skills Transfer has been uplifting and improving South Africa’s farming community for over two decades. The institution offers both short courses and National Diplomas. Not only can you choose to practice courses online, but you also have the opportunity for hands-on experience at their farm campus in Cullinan. The training programmes are accredited and cover plant production, animal production and tractor operation.
AgricultSURE
AgricultSURE offers its grouped resource assessment programmes for small-scale farmers. They have partnered with Agriskills Transfer for training.
The course duration is one day, from 9:00 to 15:00 and costs R 900 per person.
Buhle
Buhle strives to develop new farmers based on their five pillars. These are
- A sound theoretical knowledge base in agricultural technology
- Competency-based practical skills training
- Training in farm business management
- Training in appropriate life skills
- Effective follow-up and support services.
Buhle’s courses cover vegetable, grain crops, poultry, and livestock production.
Agri-Training
Agri-Training has a list of accredited online short courses, hosted by Stellenbosch University. If you are interested in farming with tomatoes, citrus, potatoes, grain and vines, this is the course for you. You can also receive technical training that includes weed management, safe handling of pesticides and complaint handling on pesticides, to name a few.
Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute
The Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute is one of the oldest agricultural training centres in Africa. Among the various Higher Education and Training (HET) and Agricultural Skills Development (ASD) courses like equine studies or occupational certificates, there are also short courses.
These cover a large scope of agricultural topics such as the correct and safe handling of chemicals for agricultural pest control, soil care, irrigation, dairy production, virticulture, vegetable production, pomology (production of pome fruit), agricultural engineering, entrepreneurship and human and social sciences.
Now that you know a bit more about where to find agricultural training, you can start working towards your future today!
