In our previous episode with CropLife, Lesley Mabasa from Mega Biotech Solutions talked about the ongoing maize trials set up by CropLife South Africa, to showcase the benefits of biotechnology for smallholder producers. He joins us again in this edition along with one of the farmers involved in the trials.
Ellias Mosomane, a farmer from Cloe in Limpopo, and CropLife SA representative Lesley Mabasa share Mosomane’s experience with the planting of biotech maize seeds at a demonstration trial.
Before meeting the CropLife SA team, Mosomane had no idea what plant biotechnology seed was. However, he had an eye-opening moment when the CropLife SA team approached him.
A whole new world
“I did not know anything about it until I met Lesley to explain everything to me,” he says.
Meanwhile, Mabasa recalls meeting Mosomane as he was just entering the farming industry and says this was the perfect opportunity for a farmer to start off correctly. “I met Mr Mosomane in October 2022. He stated that he was fairly new to full-time farming since he just retired a few years back from the job he had for so many years. He indicated that he had three seasons of good maize yield.
“Mosomane didn’t know much about maize production, nor Bt maize or herbicide-tolerant. However, he was keen to learn about the maize and technology in general, as well as ways of dealing with the stalk borer and fall armyworm challenges,” Mabasa explains.
Experience during demonstration trials
Mosomane says he could see through the experiments that the maize was growing successfully and what was a bonus to him, is the fact that the maize was not eaten by the worms.
“My experience of the two seeds – Bt and non-Bt – to tell the truth, I was seeing something I wasn’t used to seeing,” Mosomane says.
Mabasa adds, “After establishing the trial, all was going well. Our farmer was learning daily and he was reporting any observations that he was coming across. He was a good student that followed the instructions. He kept records, he adhered to the weeding programme wearing personal protective gear, and most importantly, he was able to see the difference between the trial and his own planting.
In this episode, Mosomane also discusses:
- How CropLife SA aims to help farmers;
- How Mabasa engages the community.
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