By Umamah Bakharia
The agricultural industry in South Africa is taking a turn. With many young minds entering the industry, we find ourselves taking a more modern approach in the way agriculture is carried out. A young farmer, Kwanda Nyanzeka believes that should start to harness the power of social media as it allows young farmers to build a community to share their skills and knowledge of various farming topics.
He speaks to Radio Islam on the link between social media and agriculture.
Kwanda Nyanzeka, a law degree student with an interest in agriculture
“During the lockdown we saw that [social media and agriculture] go hand in hand. We saw a lot of young farmers were using social media to sort of promote their businesses and to build communities to encourage to motivate anyone to come and join their space,” says Kwanda.
During the hard lockdown in 2020, opportunities were limited for farmers to market their product or gain knowledge on how to navigate the agricultural sphere. The use of these networking on social media created that link for farmers to educate one another by posting their tips and tricks on a social media page.
Kwanda created a Facebook group, “Agriculture & Young”, which allows farmers to create a community and encourage young people to get into agriculture. He is also using the power of social media to allow young farmers to promote their businesses and end stereotypes on farmers.
“We always have this assumption that agriculture is for old people or uneducated people, I want to change that perception that [you can be] educated and young as long as you are passionate about it and it is something that you want to do,” says Kwanda.
Using he’s always degree, he says he wants to continue influencing the youth into taking up farming as a passion.
https://soundcloud.com/radioislam/young-farmers-harnessing-the?si=3224b52b697c4ce3bcbae63c0538b4bc&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
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