Photo: Grain SA
Although farmers’ budgets were hindered this year by the drought, an atmosphere of positivity reigned on the terrain, and most exhibitors reported good sales.
Strydom said that the networks that were maintained and built at Nampo was a vital part of the show’s success, since it ensured future sales for the exhibitors as well.
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Speaking about the general feedback from exhibitors, Andries Wiese, national business development manager at Hollard, told Farmer’s Weekly that interactions between exhibitors and visitors seemed to be fewer this year, although most interactions that took place led to sales.
“There is definitely a price sensitivity, which is why we saw many offering discounts and loans at very low rates. Those that came to buy had a very specific shopping list and stuck to their budgets.”
Wiese and Strydom noted the positivity among Nampo-goers. Wiese said that difficult conversations were being had in very productive manners.
“We are seeing that problems are being called out in constructive ways, and with an attitude of problem solving rather than pointing fingers. This bodes well for agriculture because we need to be able to move forward and fix the problems, not just complain about them.”
Another trend seen at Nampo this year was the high prevalence of young farmers.
Dr Theo de Jager, chairperson of Southern African Agri Initiative, said that interest from the youth in agriculture was definitely picking up, and that the old notion of youngsters not being interested in agriculture was no longer true.
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“There were hundreds of students visiting Nampo this year and they bring with them a completely different approach to farming. They will in turn bring solutions that the older generations haven’t even thought about yet.”
Wiese in turn stated that stakeholders in the industry needed to ensure that they had solutions for this new generation of farmers, since their needs looked vastly different to previous generations.
“We can’t have cookie cutter solutions; these younger farmers are doing things differently and yesterday’s solutions are no longer applicable to them.”
Bringing together nearly 100 000 people over the four days, Nampo has again shown how resilient South Africa’s farmers are, remaining hopeful in the face of challenges.
The new era of farmers showing up at the event reveals that South Africa’s agriculture sector will continue to thrive for many more generations.
