2023 TOYOTA NEW HARVEST OF THE YEAR COMPETITION

Toyota SA is hosting the New Harvest of the Year Competition 2023. The New Harvest competition is aimed at individuals who have owned or operated/managed a farm for five years or longer and overcame a disadvantaged background to become a successful farmer.

The objective of this competition is:

1.  to identify and reward the most successful previously disadvantaged (black/coloured/Indian) farmer in South Africa, and;
2. to give recognition to those people/institutions/organisations/agencies that are involved in the development of new farmers.

Competition Prize: 

In this regard Toyota SA is sponsoring the winning farmer with a new Toyota Hilux bakkie while the winning developing institution (nominator) will be awarded with a cash prize of R10,000 (that should preferably be spent on the further development of such farmers).

Entry requirements: 

All competition entrants will be nominated by representatives of a nominating agency. These agencies include companies, organisations or institutions (e.g. farming businesses, AFASA, NAFU, National and Provincial Departments of Agriculture, DLDLR, Agri-SA and/or its Provincial affiliations, commercial banks, commodity organisations such as NWGA, MPO, RPO, NERPO, Grain SA, private commercial farmers, etc.). 

Entry requirements are the following:

1.  Entrants must be from a historically disadvantaged background (HDI’s = Black/Coloured/
   Indian);
2.  Entrants can be male or female of any age;
3. Entrants must be an individual who has owned/rented/occupied and managed/operated a
   farm for not less than five (5) years;
4. Entrants can be an individual with a farming unit comprising a singular commodity (e.g. only
   broilers) or multi-disciplinary enterprises (mixed farm);
5.  Entrants can be a person who farms as an individual or who may farm in partnership with
   others. If the candidate is farming as part of a group, he/she must have specifically allocated
   responsibilities and decision-making authority on which he/she will be judged. This means that
   the candidate must be involved in the execution of all the management functions (planning,
   implementation and control) in all the respective fields (production, marketing, finance & labour
   management), even though it may involve only some of the farm’s enterprises. Individuals who
   are only responsible for e.g. the staff and marketing functions on a farm, do not qualify for the
   competition. In the case where an individual is managing an entire enterprise such as the
   irrigation of potatoes, while another person is responsible for the cattle enterprise, both these
   individuals may separately enter the competition and will be judged on their respective enterprise
   only.
6.  Entrants will be provided with an equal opportunity to win the competition and will be judged
   on his/her management philosophy/ability and technical acumen, irrespective of what
   farming type the entrant practices (e.g. game/livestock, grain/fruit/wine or mixed farming);
7. Valid entrants include individuals that never before entered or already participated in the
   competition in the past and that may have been a finalist or a non-finalist. However, previous
   winners of the Toyota New Harvest of the Year Competition may not enter again.

Procedure:

1. Deserving HDI farmers may request that a participating company/organization nominatehim/her, on condition that the company/organisation played a (significant) mentoring role in his/her development into a successful commercial farmer.
2. Each nominating agency may nominate more than one candidate per province if all these
   nominees are on a very high management level.
3. When a deserving farmer is nominated by a nominating agency, entry forms have to be
   completed. Section A must be completed by the nominee (farmer/candidate) and Section B
   by the nominating agency.
4. The completed Sections A and B must be submitted by the nominating agency via email to
   the chairperson of the adjudicators, Prof. Carlu van der Westhuizen, to reach his office no
   later than Monday, 28 August 2023. His contact details are:
   o Tel.: 083 445 2662 / 051 507 3123
   o Scan and email to cvdwesth@cut.ac.za or carluvdw@gmail.com.
5. From 11 to 13 September 2023 a panel of adjudicators will judge all entry (nomination)
   forms to identify 5 finalists. If necessary, nominating agencies will be contacted to
   verify/confirm information provided or to obtain additional information.
6. On 14 September 2023 the names of the finalists will be send to all the nominating agencies
   and Toyota SA. On this day the finalists will be phoned to inform them that they have been
   entered in the final round of the competition.
7. Once the finalists have been notified, their names, overview of their farming practices and
   the names of the nominated agencies may be published in the media.
8. The Chairperson of the adjudication panel will liaise with the selected finalists to finalise an
   on-farm visiting schedule between 25 September and 13 October 2023 for the
   adjudication panel to adjudicate each farm.
   o During these visits finalists are expected to point out critical aspects of their farming
   business.
   o No representatives of the nominating agency will be allowed to accompany the group of
   adjudicators during this on-farm visit.
   o On the day of the on-farm visit, finalists must provide the economist (financial expert) on
   the adjudication team with audited financial statements of the past 3 years of their
   farming business.
   o The duration of the on-farm visit be no longer than 2.5 hours, of which at least 45 minutes will
   be in the office where the finalist must provide evidence of his/her record-keeping and farm
   planning systems.
9. Once the on-farm adjudication schedule has had been finalised, no changes will be
   accommodated. Finalists that hereafter being unable to accommodate the adjudication panel
   on the agreed/scheduled date, will be disqualified from the competition.
10. Entry forms will be treated confidentially and destroyed by the organisers after the winning
    finalist has been announced.
11. The organisers and sponsors (Toyota SA) will invite the finalists and their nominating
    agencies to a prize giving event on 16 November 2023 at a venue in Gauteng (date and
    place to be confirmed) when the winner will be announced and presented with his/her prize.
    Hereafter, the winner will also be announced in the media

Important note: There have in the past been many experiences that a group proposes either a female or a youth or an elderly person or the chairperson of the group as the candidate for the competition, and not the person who is actively involved in the farming business on a daily basis. This result in the incorrect person not being able to answer all the agriculture-related questions during the interview, leading to a very low score and no chance of winning the competition. Thus remember that in this competition it is only the competency of the candidate that is important, while age/gender/seniority have no significance.

Find 2023 Toyota New Harvest of the Year Competition Entry/Nomination Form here!

For further information or to obtain the entry form in Word format (to type the answers/comments), please contact the chairperson of the panel of adjudicators:
Prof. Carlu van der Westhuizen
Tel.: 083 445 2662 / 051 507 3123
E-mail: carluvdw@gmail.com or cvdwesth@cut.ac.za

Feel free to contact GreenCape team as well:

Tel: 021 811 0250

Email: buhle@green-cape.co.za