08 Nov 2016

Amid the country’s high unemployment rate, Mr Thatayaone Charlie has resorted to goat production, with the aid of Youth Development Fund (YDF).

The 24-year-old promising commercial farmer is one of the many who recently benefited from the government scheme aimed at financing youths to venture into commercial business.

Mr Charlie said the government funded him to the tune of P95 000 under the YDF to kick start small stock production.

He used the money to finance necessary materials needed for a small farm as well as the acquisition of 52 does and two bucks, hybrids of Tswana and Boer goats and set up base at his family lands, Lemone, a stone-throw from Palapye.

Clad in his khakis, a classic leather hat and shoes, an outfit he has adopted as his farming ‘uniform’, the young lad could not hide his excitement as he took BOPA on a tour of his mini-farm, affirming, ‘farming is my passion.’

With confidence oozing all over his face, Charlie stated that he was motivated to exploit agricultural production because of the many opportunities that the sector presents not only to him but to the general national economy in context of employment and food security.

The genesis of his farming journey was at an early age while at primary school, where he was involved in the rearing of doves and later graduated to breeding Tswana chickens.

His passion for farming ensured that he studied agriculture throughout his basic education in the copper-mining town of Selibe-Phikwe and coupled it with business related subjects like Office Procedure and Business Studies, a feat that has been instrumental in his quest to become a successful commercial farmer.

Upon graduation from Ba Isago University, with a Diploma in Accounting, instead of donning a suit and doing a nine-to-five, Charlie, a true incarnate of a farmer, went straight to the bushes and committed himself to the terrains of dry land in Lemone lands, the smell of cow dung and began life as a farmer.

In actual fact, he had sown the seeds six months before graduation when he started researching about YDF, working on his proposal of rearing goats and never bothered to look or apply for a job.

He resisted his parents’ pressure and demands that he should join the labour market in the field of accounting and set his eyes on the golden egg, farming, because as he puts it, ‘I have always knew what I wanted. I am a farmer and will always be.’ ENDS