As a child, Junior Perekwa’s holidays were dedicated to visiting her grandparents and helping them farm. Now a farmer herself, she is determined to realise all her dreams. Perekwa is one of the extraordinary women selected for Corteva Women Agripreneur 2022, a year-long blended development programme at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) Entrepreneurship Development Academy (EDA).
Though she grew up farming, Perekwa’s dream was not always to be a farmer. A marketer by profession, she spent 23 years working in different organisations before starting her official farming endeavours in 2021.
She says she learnt to farm with her grandparents during Christmas holidays growing up, but that it was her mother who inspired her entrepreneurial spirit.
“My mother was a hustler. She did a lot of things, including vegetable farming, where she would go to our rural home once a week to plant vegetables. She would then go harvest whenever they were ready. She also had a chicken run in our home. In essence, I grew up in agriculture.”
In school, Perekwa studied agriculture, but found that it was her least favourite subject. She says she found it too hard but realised later that it was a lack of understanding that made her dislike it.
“I didn’t have a lot of understanding of what agriculture could bring and what the soil brings. But when I look at it now, I understand that the soil is our livelihood. We can’t do anything without it. Whether you are farming with crops or raising your animals, the soil is our livelihood. It is a part of us.”
Jumping into farming with both feet
Perekwa’s idea to start farming occurred while she was married. She says that during her marriage, she helped manage a home-based chicken run and some vegetable crops. This is the reason, she explains, that she bought a small plot when the marriage ended.
“[Farming] had been something that I was thinking of doing. Even before my divorce, we had been planning on getting a farming plot, but it never materialised. So, when I got divorced, I went ahead and got the plot, because farming is something that I grew up in and something I understand.”
Unfortunately for Perekwa, divorce was not the only drastic change on the horizon. After getting her farming plot, she started a vegetable garden to grow food for her family. Her official farming activity would start during one of the most far-reaching events on earth.
“During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, I lost my job. But I thought to myself that it would be okay and that I will farm because I’ve got my plot anyway. That’s how I started.”
She had just not intended for it to start so soon. “Farming was something that I was planning to do gradually. However, when those two things happened in my life; the divorce and then losing my job, it just pushed me. I needed to start. I needed to get it going rather than wait.”
The Corteva connection
A big part of successful farming is the making of connections. This is precisely why Perekwa joined the Corteva Women Agripreneur blended programme.
“My main reason for signing up was the opportunity to work with other women who are also in farming, who have small farms like myself, and learning from them. Getting into this programme, what I wanted the most was to get those connections and get ideas from other women and learn more from them.”
Another reason Perekwa joined the programme was the mentorship aspect. She says this is her first time having an official mentor, something she is immensely happy about.
“I’ve never had that one person where I could say, ‘this one is my mentor’. So, for me, this would be the first time having a mentor. I am planning to make the most of it, and to gain as much knowledge out of my mentor as possible.”
Rolling with the punches
Perekwa is candid about the difficulties she has been facing since starting her broiler operation in July 2021. She says that it has been a tough journey with a steep learning curve, but she is optimistic for the future.
“I had 2 000 broiler chickens in my first cycle. It was my [biggest] learning curve because July is the coldest month in the year. The cold weather was not good for my chickens. I lost a quite a number of them, even though I had the heating that they required.”
This July, however, she made sure not to have broiler chicks on the farm. She explains that she has learnt the value of proper planning and is busy ensuring that she has the infrastructure in place to prepare for the rains in November and December.
“I have also started vegetable farming. My first batch of tomatoes were sold just before winter. It was a small batch because I wanted to test whether this soil was conducive to the crop, and whether I was able to do it. The harvest was quite good. I ended up selling to my local markets, and to the local hawkers on the streets.”
Feeding the nation
Like most farmers, Perekwa realises the importance of her work. One of her primary motivations is the idea that she is contributing to feeding society.
“When you see your customers walking or driving off with your produce or with chickens, you know that you are actually helping to feed the nation. That, in itself, is satisfactory and it will motivate you.”
Perekwa’s business is still in its infancy, but she already has big plans to grow its impact on her local community. She says she is passionate about helping single mothers and orphans access adequate food, which is why she plans to work with orphanages when her business expands.
“I’ve always had a passion for taking care of orphans, so I intend to give [a local orphanage] produce, perhaps once a week, depending on their needs and what I have at that particular time.”
For aspiring farmers, Perekwa’s advice is simple: employ knowledgeable people, start with the money you have, and most importantly, do not let anything stop you.
“Challenges will come. If you went to Raymond Ackerman, when he still was alive, and you ask him how it went when he started, he would tell you that he had challenges. But even with the challenges, he pushed on because he had a dream, and that dream was pushing him. So even when you are facing challenges, just go on. Yearn for your dream.”
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