Despite challenges faced by agricultural colleges in SA, there are staff and students who are passionate about agriculture

It is a sunny Wednesday and I am visiting the Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute outside Stellenbosch.

As I approach this pristine facility, which was founded in the closing years of the 19th century as the first centre for agricultural training in Africa, I am impressed by how well kept the campus is.

I’m welcomed by members of management Darryl Jacobs and Hayley Rodkin. We remark on this institute’s excellent infrastructure and maintenance.

Then the conversation shifts to the state of agricultural colleges across the country.

The previous weekend, the investigative journalism TV programme Carte Blanche showcased the deteriorating condition of SA’s agricultural colleges, an indictment in a country where agriculture still occupies an important place in the economy and has a vital role to play in ensuring food security.

Jacobs acknowledges the difficulties faced by agricultural colleges in SA, but emphasises there are staff and students who are passionate about agriculture.

Jacobs would have preferred Carte Blanche to assess how the failing colleges could learn from the functioning ones.

We made our way to where I was to deliver my address on the state of the SA agricultural economy and policy direction. We were greeted by a packed hall of third-year students.

I walked them through the challenges they will be required to solve when they enter the world of work in 2023. They were fully engaged.

The next day, I landed at Bloemfontein airport and made my way to Peritum Agri Institute, a private agricultural college which is far smaller than Elsenburg.

The similarity was in the enthusiasm of its leadership. The institute is close to some of the country’s most successful agribusinesses, which means the students get theoretical training and have an opportunity to apply the skills.

I left the Peritum facility hoping we can replicate this excellence. But the question is how to recruit enthusiastic leadership to turn the failing colleges around, improve spending practices to help modernise infrastructure and attract high-quality lecturers.

Failing to do this would be failing the young people of SA who are so passionate about agriculture.

-Sihlobo is chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of SA

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