The development of a competency model for commercial grain farmers

𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 The National Planning Commission-Vision 2030 (2012) purported that agriculture can create close to 1 million new jobs by 2030, a significant contribution to the overall employment target. This is the primary economic activity in rural areas. Therefore, to achieve this, South Africa needs to pick and support commercial agriculture sectors and regions with the highest potential for growth and employment. McElwee (2008, p. 466) stated that “Farmers are a rich resource for study in the area of entrepreneurial capability”. Since crop farming is one of the vehicles in the agriculture sector, particularly using grain farming to achieve the abovementioned number of jobs, a study exploring the competencies that potential grain farmers should possess was necessary. This study aimed to develop a competency model for commercial grain farmers in South Africa using a classic grounded theory method. In future, this would be used as a starting point to construct instruments to enable stakeholders to identify, train, develop and mentor future prospective grain farmers to fulfil the role of creating several jobs. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data from 15 participants: 13 were involved in a mixed type of agriculture, one was involved in livestock farming, and one was a professional advisor. Triangulation was also used to validate competencies raised in the first phase of data gathering and confirmed in the second phase by three experts who never took part in the first phase of the study. The constant comparison method was used to analyse available data and helped generate a competency model for commercial grain farmers. The model generated by the empirical data established the following five themes: 1) definition of commercial grain farming, which involves scale of operation, independence, own or rented land and turnover; 2) methods to acquire grain farming competencies such as educational institutions, on-the-job-training, early childhood exposure to farming, openness to guidance and refresher workshops; 3) the role of grain farming in agriculture includes food security, job creation, economic growth and wealth or income generation; 4) indicators of success in grain farming, which includes financial stability, having farming implements, being able to help others and having proper output per unit area; and several other competencies (skills, knowledge and personality attributes) expected from a commercial grain farmer. These competencies serve as practical application of the findings. They provide the basis for what trainers, mentors, agriculture advisors and all other stakeholders would be looking for to equip those interested in grain farming. The competencies will further provide the basis for farmers to draft job descriptions and specifications for the workforce. Implications and recommendations for this study are also made, including a brief discussion of the limitations of the study. ___________________________________________________________________