Selling and growing food is second nature for backyard vegetable and poultry farmer Nomahlubi Kinana. Her mother, Nontsha, was a street vendor who sold eggs and live chickens to feed her five children. It was no surprise for Kinana when she inherited her mother’s hustling spirit and love for raising chicks.
When she is not saving lives as professional nurse in Cape Town, Kinana runs a poultry and vegetable business back home in Mthatha, Eastern Cape.
“Eventually, I’ll resign from my job and move to Mthatha to run my farm full-time, so I can be there whenever I am needed,” she says.
Kinana raises chicks and grows a variety of vegetables including, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, spinach, and beetroot, among others.
Hustling runs in her blood
Kinana’s mother struggled to make ends meet after her divorce and sold veggies from her small garden to street hawkers in the area.
The matriarch would enlist the help of her children to sell vegetables. Selling food on the streets after school and on weekends would determine whether they would have their next meal, Kinana says.
While life may have been challenging, Kinana’s mother worked hard and pushed her vegetable growing business until she was able to buy a small plot of land next to her house. This expansion helped them increase the variety of vegetables they were able to supply.
Kinana says their first harvest was great. They supplied the Boxer Super Store in Mthatha, street vendors and other local businesses.
“Selling it [food on] the streets was fun because it was the only thing we knew.”
To this day, she appreciates having the farming knowledge to make her fertiliser, and try new watering and weeding methods.
Finding your roots
As a child, Kinana’s lifelong ambition was to establish herself in the business world. Her mother, however, wanted more for her and influenced her decision to become a nurse.
“I took a nursing class back in 2013, and I knew then that nursing wasn’t for me. The long hours and the distance from my family are just too much to bear.”
After a nine-year marriage, Kinana called it quits and returned home to resume her family’s legacy.
“We order between 100 and 200 chicks per cycle. They’re a day old when they get here. After caring for them for up to six weeks, we’d have them ready for sale. It’s a full six weeks of care.”
Raising chicks is tricky because they are vulnerable to changes in temperature, humidity, light, and draft picks. Kinana says that she orders more than she needs just to be safe, so that if some of them die, she will still have enough.
“For the first few weeks of their lives, chicks are extremely vulnerable. They’re so weak that diseases can spread more easily to them. Inadequate feeding methods are sometimes to blame.”
Inspired by a mother’s love
When Kinana returned home after her divorce, she found her mother ageing, and since she has always had a passion for farming, it was fitting that she stepped into her mother’s muddy boots.
The journey has not been without any challenges. Her small plot of produce is always the target of theft and vandalism in her community. Despite this, Kinana pushes forward until she can make her dream of being a full-time farmer a reality.
“I learned farming the hard way, but my mother made the experience enjoyable. I fell in love with it in that regard.”
As the business expands, she is on a mission to find innovative ways to make her farming business run more efficiently.
“I am considering implementing a drip irrigation system, planting our potatoes in bags due to a lack of land, and purchasing a greenhouse to protect our produce from sun and hailstorms.”
Kinana has always desired to create employment opportunities for her community. She plans to purchase a larger plot of land to create more opportunities in her community.
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