Lebakeng Mokhele’s journey into agriculture did not begin with formal training or institutional entry points. It began with selling vegetables door to door in his community, learning how local trade works long before he managed land, livestock, or agricultural systems at scale.
Today, he runs a 1 300-hectare mixed farming operation while pursuing a Master of Business Management degree at the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Qwaqwa Campus. Between managing cattle, sheep, and vegetable production, he is also working on a bigger question: why farmers who produce food are still unable to access the markets that determine whether their work becomes sustainable income.
His focus has shifted from farming as production to farming as a system.
“I started off reselling vegetables door to door in my neighbourhood, [and moved] to learning how to actually farm,” he said. “My success lies heavily in my ability to do intensive research and remain flexible to learning new information and self-teaching myself how to go about it.”
‘Farming is not the problem. Access is.’
In the communities where Mokhele works, the challenge is rarely about whether farmers can produce food. The challenge is what happens after production, when access to markets, logistics systems, and information determines whether that food becomes income or surplus supply with no buyer.
That gap is where his work sits.
He works with emerging farmers in the Free State through initiatives linked to the Centre for Global Change at the UFS Qwaqwa Campus, supporting them with production inputs, seedlings, and agricultural guidance that improves their ability to produce consistently.
But production alone is not the end goal.
Farmers are also supported with planning tools, compliance preparation, and basic business development support that helps position them for funding and entry into formal markets. “We have identified small-scale farmers in the area with the sole purpose of assisting them access markets,” he said. “But for them to access such markets they need a product.”
For Mokhele, the reality is simple. Many farmers are not excluded because they cannot farm, but because the system they are trying to enter is not built in a way that includes them. “The community possesses a wealth of practical knowledge that cannot always be captured through statistics alone,” he said. “Farmers understand their local environments, markets, and challenges in ways that provide critical insights for research and development.”
What he sees in practice is that small interventions can change outcomes. Access to information, better coordination between farmers, and clearer pathways to markets often make the difference between subsistence and sustainability.
He believes this is where agriculture needs to shift, from isolated production to connected systems that allow farmers to participate fully in value chains. “Strong partnerships among farmers, suppliers, government institutions, researchers, and private-sector stakeholders are essential for building resilient agricultural systems.”
For Mokhele, the goal is not only to improve farming outcomes, but to strengthen how agricultural systems function so that production is linked directly to opportunity.
As South Africa reflects on the role of young people in shaping its future during Youth Month, his work highlights a quieter but critical form of contribution – by young people who are not only participating in existing systems, but actively working to reshape how those systems include others.