Already heralded as South Africa’s most successful agricultural reform initiative, PALS is celebrating ten years of creating new opportunities for people all over the country
Since 2014, Partners in Agri Land Solutions (PALS) has been proactively solving South Africa’s land reform challenges in a practical, merit-based manner that supports economic growth, job creation, food security, custodianship, and social harmony.
Now the organisation is celebrating is tenth anniversary and says it is ready to work with the ‘Zoomers’, or Generation Z, who are now taking over from the ’Baby Boomers’, or, in short, the ’Boomers’.
Gerrit van Vuuren, strategic advisor at PALS, noted that most of the selected group who founded PALS in 2014 were part of the Baby Boomers or Generation X.
“PALS is gearing up for the next ten years by adding Zoomers to the Boomers, those born between 1997 and 2015, or Generation Z,” he explained. “They represent the future leaders of the world, the country and most importantly, agriculture.”
PALS is a private sector initiative in which farmers cooperate with all spheres of government and communities.
It started in the deciduous fruit region of Witzenberg in the Western Cape, but has now expanded to the Free State and Mpumalanga and with listed PALS projects throughout South Africa.
Van Vuuren said the tone of PALS brands would be aimed at the Zoomers, who represent 27.5m South Africans, almost half of the population.
“These guys don’t live with the bygone baggage of the Baby Boomers,” he commented. ”An increase in political awareness has led Gen Z to being one of the most vocal and active generations on social justice that drives change.”
Over the next ten years Zoomers are expected to demand greater corporate social responsibility.
“They know they must inhabit this earth for a long time to come and thus are prepared to make it work,” Van Vuuren continued. “They need to know that PALS is their pal to go into the future.”
PALS’ focus and efforts will be directed at creating young ambassadors.
“It’s already happening on school level and at tertiary institutions,” he confirmed. ”It’s not important that, pro rata, a small portion of the Zoomers will end up directly in agriculture, it is important that most all of Gen Z wants to make sure or be assured that there will always be good food on the table.”
Establishing PALS with a strong foundation over the past ten years sets the process in motion, Van Vuuren outlined.
“Bringing the young guns in over the next ten years is the key to success. The baton needs to be passed on. Because in 2034 a lot of Baby Boomers will not be part of the process anymore. But the process can never stop.”
In South African agriculture there is increasingly a long-term vision developing in terms of production, packing and the penetration of international markets.
Transformation from one generation to the next in the fresh produce industry takes time, and placing this in the wider context of the country as a whole and the needs of the wider population is something which will further spur the optimism created by the recent formation of the government of national unity.
