September is a very busy and important month on the grain calendar. As the winds in the interior started blowing again promptly in August this year, we look forward with hope and expectation to a favourable settlement month in the Western Cape. Just as the new spring feels almost unreal, I cannot believe that it is the start of my second year at Grain SA. It truly has been a good year in which I not only learned a lot, but also met a large number of new people.
This month of September is not only filled with shows and NAMPOs, but God willing we will also again have the opportunity to acknowledge outstanding performance in person and say thank you together with the Day of Celebration, the Grow for Gold competition as well as the ever-popular Grain Producer of the Year event.
With the recent meeting of the Executive at the end of July, Grain SA took a good look at its north star and officially approved the vision, mission, values, as well as culture and objectives. It is a privilege for me to share it here briefly and thus explain why it is of crucial importance to me and the personnel as well as for every proud Grain SA member. As I wrote in the month of May, the profitable production of grain on farm level as well as our ability to influence, remain the most important role for Grain SA as producer organisation.
Grain SA understands and recognises the enormous administrative burden on the modern-day producer simply to be able to produce. I believe that no one will disagree with me that it requires more and more time to keep the basics in place. That is why it is important for your producer organisation to focus on the overall larger drivers and to try as a collective to change and implement them on your behalf. In this way, you can continue to successfully – that is profitably – produce.
The vision we strive for is to influence the macro- and micro-economic environments in such a way that sustainable and profitable local grain production and development are possible. The mission we focus on and what we would like to achieve is to maintain a credible and sustainable voluntary and inclusive grain producer organisation through focussed strategic actions and meaningful partnerships and relationships with industry role-players. What remains important is that all tasks will be guided only by producer mandates.
Inherent and true to our culture is to create a caring environment for passionate, dedicated and knowledgeable individuals to grow; to serve the organisation with passion and to influence the broader food value chain. Furthermore, we strive to instil trust and build relationships through respectful interaction as well as open and honest yet effective communication. We value sustained, reliable and credible teamwork that delivers long-lasting results with impact.
Our six strategic objectives, against which we would like to measure all projects, focus areas and activities, comprise the following:
- Promote profitable and sustainable grain and oilseed production.
- Create and support commercially sustainable developing grain producers who stand proudly on their own feet, thus making a substantial contribution to local food security.
- Increase the involvement of the younger generation of producers.
- Build a wider member base.
- Create and maintain key value chain relationships.
- Efficient and effective communication systems.
When these objectives are examined closely, one can see that the overall goal of Grain SA basically remained the same – hence why I wrote in August that little has actually changed over time. The most important change in direction is that the development programme’s focus has been aligned with the need expressed by government for this part of the sector to contribute substantially to the national grain and oilseed harvest.
