The Northern Cape Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development’s Adjudication team will be starting with its enormous task of visiting the projects across the province from 7 May 2018.
The team received about 24 entries for this year’s Female Entrepreneur Awards.
The purpose of visiting the projects is to discover how well female farmers know their projects, in both livestock and crop farming. It also seeks to get first-hand information on their daily work at the farms by checking how well do they do their record keeping, etc.
The Female Entrepreneur Awards Competition (FEA) is an annual event, striving to acknowledge the contribution of women, young women and women with disabilities in the sector through food security, job creation, economic growth and poverty alleviation. This happens through leveraging entrepreneurs from being subsistence to commercial farmers.
The team received less entries this year compared to previous years due to the tougher competition rules, especially in categories like Smallholder, Processing, Export and Commercial.
Requirements that disqualified certain applications include:
-Lack of entity registration certificate
-Failure to add value to the communities
-Inability to adhere to standards and regulations.
-Absence or non- demonstration of exporting certificate
-Failure to demonstrate good sense in financial management, record keeping and audited financial statements.
Last year the Department received a record of 87 entries. The Department hoped to get more entries in the Processing and the Export categories.
Entries are in the following categories.
- Best Female Farmworker In The Sector
- Best Subsistence Producer
- Top Entrepreneur: Smallholder
- Top Entrepreneur: Processing
- Top Entrepreneur: Export
- Top Entrepreneur: Commercial
- MEC Special Awards
-Youth –
-Disabled –
The team is expected to complete their work at end of May. The John Taolo Gaetsewe District Municipality has 08 entries, Francis Baard 05, Pixley ka Seme 05, Namakwa 03 while ZF Mgcawa has 03 entries.
The projects visit by the team will pave a way for the Department’s top class - Female Entrepreneur Awards 2018 gala event that will take place in August 2018.
Details of the total prize money per category will be outlined at a later stage.
Mr Phemelo Manankong –External Communications Officer
@ 053 802 5622/ 066 303 8177
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www.agrinc.gov.za
Directorate: Communications Services – Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development.