Our Vhembe Flagship

That the Nobel Prize for ECONOMICS went to Richard Thaler in 2017, is a clear indicator of the growing importance of behaviourally-informed policies for businesses worldwide. Thaler’s research laid the groundwork for the Mind, Behaviour and Development Unit (eMBeD) of the World Bank and explains how enterprises should keep a respectful eye on realistic human behaviour to accelerate growth.

“During our many years in Rural Development through Enterprise and now at our project at Tshipakoni Agricultural school in rural Limpopo, our experience confirmed Thaler’s conclusions again,” says senior researcher of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Rensie van Rensburg.

Through developing an Agricultural incubator in Vhembe region, we have experienced first-hand the necessity to consistently and persistently, incorporate appropriate human behaviour-strategies into the economic and technology mixes of our enterprise-practises in agriculture. We call our ‘eMBeD’ approach “Business, Boxes & Behaviour” with boxes we mean appropriate Technology.

“The World Bank already applies the Thaler-approach in South Africa. It is an excellent way to accelerate growth-development for the South African economy, especially in agricultural enterprises where many eager, warm-blooded humans (not only machines and technology) are employed,” he says.

Our 2-year Agricultural Project in Vhembe was supported by the CSIR’s Technology for Rural Innovation and Economic Development programme with the aim to promote agri-entrepreneurship and job-creation in rural communities of this poverty-stricken part of the fertile Levubu river valley in Limpopo province.

“PASA, which stands for Practical Agricultural Services for Africa, is a group of black, LOCAL youngsters who decided to pool their talents and go head-on for commercial small-scale farming. They have been part of our project for the past 2 years and are now taking their first, independent steps. We would love to continue to nurture consecutive groups for a couple of years more, to strengthen and expand the agricultural bonds in this and other communities of Vhembe, but we need help from private and public enterprises with an interest in agriculture” Rensie says.

“This is the reality: South African youth is in dire need of practical upskilling, exposure, responsible mentoring and appropriate technologies to form a bridge from a neglected school system to a commercial farming system,” says Rensie.

“In Vhembe we have seen that our tenacious engagement with youth and community works, and that this would be an essential aspect to address if South Africa wants to establish a next generation of young, black farmers to grow our economy. This honest, respectful, collaborative approach could help to start heal the hurt of apartheid in our country too, “he says.

“A fair investment of bare necessities like tools and practical infrastructure-development are off course, essential.  This way participants can experience risk, in a safer environment, make their own first money, while creating jobs for themselves and others in the process.”

“At the same time, we must also bridge the stark, educational divides by funding support systems, availing appropriate technology for rural purposes and stick-in-there with practical training and persistent engagement with a variety of stakeholders in the communities. This can be gruelling, but it is part of realistic human-behaviour-strategies,” he says.