COMMUNITY agricultural development is the brainchild of a KwaZulu-Natal student who will be attending the annual Brightest Young Minds conference in Johannesburg next month.

Sithembiso Nkosi is among 100 students selected from across the country to participate in the four-day conference, themed A climate for change, starting on July 6.

Students will discuss innovative ways to build a world with less carbon emissions, as well as compete by providing sustainable business ideas. Fourteen students with the best ideas will participate in next year's summit.

Nkosi, an agricultural economics honours student, yesterday said he had ideas to present at the summit.

"Being one of the students to be invited to the BYM conference will help me to show my agricultural ideas to business people and possible future investors or partners," he said.

Nkosi was the overall winner in the Environmental Sustainability category at last year's Sife national competition. He owed his victory to programmes he created to teach organic and hydro farming to rural communities in Zululand.

"I have been educating communities about the importance of protecting nature. I have also been leading projects to teach communities about using new methods of farming and the chemicals needed to farm," he said.