High on a KwaZulu-Natal hilltop, nestled between Tongaat and Ballito, lies a field of vibrant red and green. This is not your average vegetable patch; it is the domain of amaranth farmer Seniren Naidoo.
Producing this leafy green vegetable known locally as “imifino“, is not easy but Naidoo is up for the task.
Naidoo’s journey with amaranth began with his grandfather, who cultivated the crop on a small plot. In 2013, after graduating with a business degree, Naidoo’s passion for imifino truly sprouted.
“When I finished university, I looked into imifino and started doing Google searches about it and I couldn’t find anything.
“When I went to a market, I found that people sell the weed after harvesting it from the roadside. When I saw this, I recognised it as the red herbs and the green herbs we’re growing at home,” he recalls.
He realised it is a common vegetable in the African-Indian community in KwaZulu-Natal. “I asked my dad to teach me how to plant it.”
Growing the family business
He currently plants the red, green, and sugarcane herbs known locally as imifino, ibomvu, ihlaza and imbuya.
Naidoo’s farm produces between 5 000 and 15 000 bunches of amaranth varieties every week and supplies private market stores in Tongaat, Verulam, Pietermaritzburg, and Johannesburg.
“When it comes to supplying markets, we supply most private stores. So my buyers usually purchase the product straight from the farm because not a lot of people sell amaranth.
“I am somewhat known as the biggest herb producer in the province and that’s really helped me,” he says.
To maintain production, Naidoo and his team plant weekly, rotating the soil and sprinkling seeds.
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Cultivating amaranth
Naidoo explains that most amaranth prefers warm weather because the cold causes it to bolt. During the cold seasons, he uses more fertiliser.
“Because we plant it on a large scale, we’ve planted it over the hilltop instead of the valley bottom because the valley bottom is colder, leading to less sunlight.
“That is why we prefer the hill for more sun, so we scatter it around the higher areas across the whole plot in winter,” he explains.
Besides being a farmer, Naidoo is a full-time banker and admits that it is not always possible to juggle both. However, he has a support team he can depend on.
“When it started, I failed miserably because when I first planted, I put too much seed in the ground and everything came out stunted and yellow.”
“The first few weeks I struggled with getting the consistency right because the seeds are fine, and you can only plant them with your hand.”
The seeds, only slightly larger than the head of a needle, must be sprinkled very carefully.
“The first time I did it, I got it very wrong. The second and third time, I started doing it properly. At the time my dad and I were the only people who could plant the seeds properly,” he shares.
Challenges of an amaranth farmer
When they started, seed availability was a big issue. Because of this, Naidoo had to learn how to make his own seed and mix his own manure.
For him, the most challenging aspect of his journey is the lack of support for amaranth farmers. There was a time when he needed assistance combating a moth infestation but there were no chemicals available, Naidoo recalls.
“That is why my father plays a massive role in my life. Throughout the trial-and-error season, he was the one who taught me about farming and understanding herbs and he corrected my mistakes,” he says.
Naidoo grew up seeing his father farming his whole life. He adds that it was because of him that he graduated with an honours degree in tax law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).
Naidoo sees himself as Africa’s largest amaranth farmer and he now wants to take this to the next level and become amaranth’s biggest promoter.
“Interestingly, we have a lot of food production but we are still struggling with food security. So I would like to work with what I love and also help the rest of the continent to curb food insecurity,” he says.
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