Crop farmer Angel Malele was born and raised surrounded by the greenery and fresh air of Hlabekisa in Mpumalanga, where her family led a simple life on the farm. She left to pursue a career in Johannesburg, however, while the glitz and glam of the city held many promises, nothing was more pleasant to her than returning to the familiar mountains back home.
“I don’t know why I didn’t make this decision sooner. I do not regret leaving my job and the busy city. It was the best decision ever!” exclaims Malele.
Where it all started
Growing up as the second daughter of her parents, her interest and love for farming started when she saw her father putting food on the table.
“I grew up in a home where farming was already there, a practice I grew up seeing from my father. He used to plant vegetables and I used to help him a lot when I was younger,” she says.
She completed her high school career at Sekwai Secondary and attended the University of South Africa’s (Unisa) Pretoria campus to complete a degree in forensic sciences and technology. Malele later registered for a post-graduate diploma in risk management at the same institution.
But life took a different turn for Malele. She pursued a career as a rope access technician for Gautrain in Midrand, Johannesburg. Much of her salary, however, helped to pay production costs like fertlisers, inputs, and seeds for her father back home.
“Whenever I came home from work in Mpumalanga, I always found my dad on the farm doing his thing, and that always struck me,” she says.
Back in the concrete jungle of Johannesburg life was very different from the peace and quiet she left behind in Mpumalanga. Much of her days involved safety devices like anchors and harnesses, constructing scaffolding, repairs to equipment, operating cranes, inspecting various structures for signs of wear or tear, and more.
“In 2017 I told myself that I wanted to change to farming because I saw that my father was growing older. He could not complete tasks and was not fully aware of other things like accessing funding so I wanted to help him,” adds Malele.
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Making her best decision
Her father, Salioti Malele, taught her all she knew about crop farming, including tending the crops, how to understand it, and how to maintain it, Malele shares.
“He kept me close to his side and I learned a lot from him. Eventually, he advised me to branch into the family business because of the interest I had in it. He told me to leave my job and join him.”
It was not long after that conversation with her father that Malele decided to return home. She resigned and August 2022 was her last month at Gautrain.
“At first things were not easy for me because I left a job that paid me monthly and now I moved to something a bit different. Previously I knew that I would get paid, but that was not the case.
“So, when I first moved I used my salary to pay for fertiliser and seeds, and it was not easy to fund the business. Progress is a bit slow because we face different challenges. It was all self-funded,” says Malele.
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Market access headache
She runs Moremela Farming with her father on two plots, one which is three hectares, and the other on six hectares. On the two plots she plants different crops, which on average produce a harvest of about 5 000 cabbage heads and on a good season make a profit of R1 500 to R20 000.
On the six-hectare plot she plants mostly maize, potatoes, butternut, and tomatoes. On the three-hectare plot, she plants sugar beans, cabbage, and spinach.
“Our market is local farmers, and we have approached distributors to sell to supermarkets like Spar and Boxer and we were told that they contract with other people, so I tried to connect myself with those people so that I can supply them instead.
“So far our relationship is on good terms because they reach out to me for crops and I sell it off to them. We also sell to street vendors and community members,” Malele shares.
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Challenges of a self-funded farmer
According to Malele, at times she would plant and harvest but still struggle with market access, and then find her crop rotting, which leads to waste.
Another challenge is that her current market is not big enough and they do not buy in big volumes.
There is also the issue of pests. The chemicals and pesticides needed to deal with them are often very expensive, which leaves her vulnerable to crop and root damage.
“As a self-funded farmer, it becomes difficult for me to work because I see my crops rotting and being infested. In most cases, I need to find something to fight the pest, but I don’t have the money to buy them.
“At times, I will have to borrow money elsewhere to be able to get the money to buy the pesticides and chemicals,” admits Malele.
Remaining positive
Despite these challenges, Malele is optimistic about her agricultural future.
“I have seen benefits in agriculture ever since I left my job and even felt regretful, wondering why I had not changed my job sooner!”
She has learned many lessons. One of them is that farming needs patience.
“It is not something that you look at and think you want to be rich quickly. It’s not something that brings in money every month, so you must be patient and trust the process and hope for the best,” Malele shares.
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