Paul Ntshabele is an Agronomist, Agribusiness and Land Reform leader. His passion is food security and Youth In Agriculture. He has held various leadership roles at the University of Pretoria as an Executive Council member of the faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. Minister of Student Guardian (nathouse), Executive Council member of Kollegetehuis residence, Minister of Internal and External Affairs at Kollegetehuis, Chairperson of Kollegetehuis Club house, member of the Golden Key Honorary International, AISEC (Association Internationale des Étudiants en Sciences Économiques et Commerciales), he was selected to be on the Tuks Top Junior and Senior Prestigious Leadership Programme and was part of SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise).

Paul is a United State Department of Agriculture Cochran fellow. He was selected to participate in a World Bank Fink Mark Trust SADAC Access To Rural Finance Programme and has a certificate of A Programme in Agricultural and Rural Finance from Continued Education at the University of Pretoria. He completed a Signa/Agbiz Transforming Leadership in Agribusiness workshop. He is a member of the Institute of Directors (IoDSA). He is also member of the Southern African Society of Horticultural Science and the Land Rehabilitation Society of Southern Africa (LaRSSA).

Paul does pro bono work with smallholder farmers throughout the country and volunteers in various agricultural platforms. He voluntarily served on the Department of Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry’s national task team for smallholder producers. Through the years he has been an invited speaker and presented at various agricultural/agribusiness conferences/symposiums on issues affecting emerging farmers and food security.

During his career, he has worked as an Agronomist, Fruit and Vegetable Procurement Officer, Lab Quality Control Technician, Extension Officer, Emerging Market Manager, Product Development Specialist and Business Development for multinational Agribusiness such as McCain, Sakata Seeds and Freshmark of the Shoprite Group and has consulted to the Japanese government.

Paul is the Founder and Executive Director of PSJ Group, which is a diversified agricultural holdings company, as well as the co-founder of Land Rehabilitation Company, in partnership with the University of Pretoria Enterprise and The National House of Traditional Leaders.

He is also co-founder of AgriMintech, a climate smart green company working with Eskom to beneficiate coal ash waste to produce a soil substrate condition product that increases land fertility and productivity of degraded mine land. He is the co-founder of the Centre of Mined Land Rehabilitation – a Coal Mined Land Rehabilitation Research & Training Centre of Excellence. He is a director of Black Grain Merchant, PLB Agri Holdings, Black Meat Co, SP Agri Distributors, Black Commodities and FOAGRI which is an agricultural engineering and artificial intelligence company.

He is a co-founder together with Ndaba Mandela of “A Million Food Gardens for Mandela Day”. He is an independent expert advisor on the Bokamoso Ba Rona Sibanye Stillwater 30 000 ha Agricultural project. He serves as an independent advisor on the Dipuno Investment Committee (Dipuno Enterprise and Supplier Development Fund is a Tiger Brands Foundation Fund).

He is the Chairperson of the Dr Sam Motsuenyane Foundation which works with farmers and entrepreneurs nationally.  He is a member of the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz). Paul is a founding member of the newly launched South African Agricultural Development Agency (AGDA) lead by Roelf Meyer.

He founded https://safoodgardens.org/ during the pandemic as climate smart, zero hunger and Millennium Development Goals platform with different partners to augment the food insecurity crisis in the country through food gardens.

Paul was one of the ten Agribusiness Entrepreneurs selected to participate in the Africa – Asia Business Partnership Forum Programme with University of Pretoria Gordon Institute of Business Science in collaboration with Michigan State University. and Akita International University in Japan.

He studied Agronomy at the University of Pretoria, Project Management at UNISA, Zero Hunger Policy: Emerging Farm Management at University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. Social Entrepreneurship at Gibs.