Work-integrated learning on farms is celebrated as a stepping stone for young South Africans entering agriculture, but students and hosts describe a harder reality of practical growth, mental strain and lifestyle change, Food for Mzansi reported.
A 2025 study in the South African Journal of Agricultural Extension by Reward Mathebula, Elliot M. Zwane and Ernest M. Letsoalo evaluated 73 postgraduate government interns in Mpumalanga. Of 35 statements, 19 drew negative responses about structural gaps such as poor pay and delayed employment, while 16 drew positive feedback about skills and practical exposure.
Sinethemba Gebashe of Ithuba Lamahlavula Farming, who hosts interns including department of agriculture placements, said some arrive confident in theory but not yet comfortable with hands-on work, so he works beside them and gives them real responsibilities in layer and poultry production, record keeping and general farm work. The learning runs both ways: "They have also brought new ideas and knowledge from their studies," he said.
Mabongi Ndabandaba, a third-year Sol Plaatje University diploma student, called her placement "bittersweet". Finding a host was the first hurdle, and poultry work meant starting at 6 am to feed the birds and staying until 8 pm for the evening check. "At university, students can skip lectures without consequences, but working on a farm requires you to be mentally prepared for anything that might go wrong, such as livestock mortality," she said, adding that interns must make room for each farm's real resources.
Ezile Mdliva, a former Cape Peninsula University of Technology intern, left a dairy-farm placement in the Eastern Cape in its eleventh month. He said some interns do not see themselves as interns and are shocked by the workload, and that institutions leave students unprepared by placing them on farms only in their final year after years of theory.
The report was written by Lisakanya Venna.
Photo: Olga Ernst / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Food for Mzansi
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