Author(s): Sthokozile Mamba, Andrisha Beharry-Ramraj, Pfano Mashau
The global Covid-19 pandemic that occurred in the midst of the fourth industrial age has disrupted operations in various organizations. The organizations in the agriculture sector were equally impacted by the conditions of Covid-19. Employees were high impacted by changes that farms had to make to be effective in terms of performance and productivity. The human resource management of agricultural systems had to play a huge role in ensuring a balance between the well-being of farm workforce and the goals of the farms. This research aimed to explore human resource management strategies used by farm managers to cope with Covid-19 conditions and are suitable to use post-Covid-19. It also addressed how these strategies can be coupled with the gradual changes to adapt in a fourth industrial age. The external desk research method was adopted to fulfill the aims of the study where secondary data was extract from online research papers. The research concluded that farm managers consider up skilling and reskilling of workers a priority to cope with Covid-19 conditions and adapt with future conditions that require advanced farm skills. However, more research is required in the field of farm human resource management in South Africa.