Sorghum Trust

About the Sorghum Trust

The Sorghum Trust is a South African agricultural trust that funds work for the benefit of the country's sorghum industry. It was created after the Sorghum Board closed in 1997, when all of the board's funds were transferred to the new trust. These funds became the discretionary funds of the Sorghum Trust, which its trustees manage in terms of the trust deed.

The trust's main objective is to grow its income and to use it to fund projects that benefit the sorghum industry. The trust deed provides for five trustees, who represent the parties with an interest in the industry, including the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development.

The trust does most of its work by funding other organisations. It supports research, the collection and sharing of market information, and transformation projects in the South African sorghum industry. Together with the Sorghum Cluster Initiative, it also hosts an annual industry gathering, which took place on 14 October 2026.

How the Sorghum Trust supports students

The Sorghum Trust aims to promote higher education in agriculture, and in particular the study of sorghum and its role in South African farming. Its founders, who include producers, researchers and private industry, set up a scholarship scheme to identify and educate the people that the industry will need in future.

The scheme funds postgraduate study only. It supports master's students who are studying by dissertation and doctoral students whose research is relevant to the South African sorghum industry. The trustees decide each year how much each scholarship is worth. In the most recent published call, the trust offered scholarships of R30,000 to two applicants. You can read the full terms on our Sorghum Trust Scholarship page.

Agri Manage Solutions, a company that specialises in agricultural clients, administers the scholarship scheme on the trust's behalf. Agri Manage also runs the bursary schemes of several other agricultural trusts.

What to know before applying

Applications close on 30 September each year. You must be a South African citizen, admitted to full-time master's or doctoral study, and the trust must approve your research proposal before you start. Your university must also appoint a supervisor whom the trust approves.

The scholarship comes with obligations. You must work in the South African sorghum industry for the same period that the trust funded you, and you must submit a copy of your completed thesis or dissertation. If you fail a semester or year course, the trust can cancel the scholarship and ask you to repay it with interest. For questions, contact Agri Manage Solutions, the administrators of the Sorghum Trust.