Nampo Harvest Day: The rise of a global agricultural megastar

After a two-year absence from the agricultural calendar, Grain SA’s Nampo Harvest Day, the biggest agricultural show in the Southern Hemisphere, is ready to make a spectacular comeback, says Toit Wessels, Grain SA’s assistant manager for marketing and Nampo.

- Annelie Coleman

The very first Nampo Harvest Day, then called the Sampi Harvest Day, took place on 7 and 8 June 1967 on the farm Donkerhoek in the Bloemfontein district. Two hundred farmers attended the 1967 event. The current event is owned and hosted by Grain SA.

While its format may have changed over the past few decades, the harvest day's objective has stayed the same, says Toit Wessels, Grain SA's assistant manager for marketing and Nampo.

"Nampo aims to bring together agricultural suppliers and producers," he explains.

According to Dr Dirk Strydom, research lead at Nampo, agricultural producers and the public will be able to experience the full spectrum of modern agriculture in 2022 as the event will, for the first time, take place over a period of five days. He says the 54th Nampo Harvest Day offers a unique opportunity for producers to explore the latest technology and productivity solutions on the market. Nampo doesn't only present an opportunity for conversation and dialogue, but also allows the public and other role players to experience commercial agriculture and see food safety and security in action, he adds.

Due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, Nampo was not held via face-to-face contact in 2020 or 2021. The show's absence was certainly felt across the agriculture sector, says Dr Pieter Taljaard, Grain SA CEO.

"To host government representatives and stakeholders from the agricultural value chain provides the opportunity for important and sometimes challenging conversations to take place, in an environment conducive to and aimed at promoting the sector locally and throughout the sub-Saharan Africa region."

THE FIRST EVENT