• Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • News
  • Lifestyle
KwaZulu-Natal farmer and soil scientist Morgan Brand.

PODCAST: The secrets of home brewing and soil science

6th May 2020
This week on the Farmer’s Inside Track Weekend Edition, we take a closer look at the Master Plan for the Commercial Forestry Sector in South Africa. We’re joined by the executive director of Forestry South Africa, Michael Peter paints an intriguing picture.Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

SA forestry: Dynamite on a small patch of land

3rd Jul 2022
The war on plant-based foods has erupted in South Africa. Photo: LikeMeat/Unsplash

War on veggie meat names ‘to protect consumers’

2nd Jul 2022
What to look for when formulating dairy cow rations

What to look for when formulating dairy cow rations

1st Jul 2022
Leave your comfort zone and make money, says foodie

Leave your comfort zone and start hustling, says foodie

1st Jul 2022
Recipe: Make Makile’s crispy chicken wings

Recipe: Make Makile’s crispy chicken wings

1st Jul 2022
Experts have warned farmers to prepare for another steep fuel price increase this month. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Caught in a price spiral: Farmers brace for major losses

1st Jul 2022
Parts of the Western Cape, such as the Central Karoo, are still experiencing drought. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Drought-burdened farmers receive R48m. in fodder

1st Jul 2022
Through his company, Iboyana agri farming, Mhlengi Ngcobo is changing the lives of youth and women in his community. Photo:Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Self-taught farmer doing his bit for the greater good

30th Jun 2022
Research has revealed that less than three in 10 farmers in the upper parts of Africa use technology. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Technology not a priority for Africa’s smallholder farmers

30th Jun 2022
The Mamahlola Communal Property Association was among the first to be established in 2000, but due to underinvestment, their land soon turned into a symbol of government’s land restoration failure. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

The poverty-fighting tool that’s not fighting poverty

30th Jun 2022
Langeberg & Ashton Foods provides employment for around 250 permanent and 4 300 seasonal staff. Photo: Supplied

ICYMI: Search for fruit factory buyer continues

30th Jun 2022
Michele Carelse, founder, and CEO of Feelgood Health, Aquaponics horticulturalist, PJ Phiri Gwengo, Dr Didi Claassen, Afrivets executive for technical and marketing support, and Sibusiso Xaba, co-founder and CEO of Africa Cannabis Advisory Group. Photo:Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Podcast: Learn the basics of growing microgreens

29th Jun 2022
  • Home
  • News
  • Changemakers
  • Lifestyle
  • Farmer’s Inside Track
  • Food for Thought
11 GLOBAL MEDIA AWARDS
Sun, Jul 3, 2022
Food For Mzansi
  • Home
  • News
  • Changemakers
    • All
    • AgriCareers
    • Entrepreneurs
    • Farmers
    • Groundbreakers
    • Innovators
    • Inspiration
    • It Takes a Village
    • Mentors
    • Movers and Shakers
    • Partnerships
    Through his company, Iboyana agri farming, Mhlengi Ngcobo is changing the lives of youth and women in his community. Photo:Supplied/Food For Mzansi

    Self-taught farmer doing his bit for the greater good

    Reggie Kambule from Villiers in the Free State runs a 185 hectare farm where he breeds livestock and cultivates maize. Photo:Supplied/Food For Mzansi

    Engineer-turned farmer takes pride in good results

    Agripreneur 101: Sweet success for jam producer

    Agripreneur 101: Sweet success for jam producer

    Real Housewife turns passion for wine into a business

    Real Housewife turns passion for wine into a business

    David Mthombeni is building an agriculture empire for his family.Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

    Farmer gets his hands dirty while building family empire

    Gauteng farmers give youth a leg-up in agriculture

    Women in farming give youth a leg up in agriculture

    Watch out, these young farmers are on fire!

    Watch out, these young farmers are on fire!

    Unati Speirs has vast experience in agri-business strategy and business funding and was recently appointed as a new board director for Hortgro. Photos: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

    Youngest Hortgro hotshot takes transformation to heart

    Prof Kennedy Mnisi a dedicated young man who wants to help livestock farmers with animal health education to prevent diseases. Picture. Supplied/ Food For Mzansi.

    Animal scientist works hard to earn top dog status

  • Lifestyle
  • Farmer’s Inside Track
  • Food for Thought
No Result
View All Result
Food For Mzansi

PODCAST: The secrets of home brewing and soil science

by Noluthando Ngcakani
6th May 2020
in Farmer's Inside Track, News
Reading Time: 5 mins read
A A
KwaZulu-Natal farmer and soil scientist Morgan Brand.

KwaZulu-Natal farmer and soil scientist Morgan Brand.

In this week’s virtually recorded podcast episode of Farmer’s Inside Track KwaZulu-Natal fruit farmer Morgan Brand joins us from Canaan, his father’s farm in Alfred County on the south coast of KZN.  

In the episode, Brand bares his soul and shares details of his experiences under national lockdown. He chats to Food for Mzansi editor Dawn Noemdoe and co-founder Ivor Price on a variety of exciting experiences, from his journey to becoming a soil scientist, home brews and working hand in hand with his “Zulu mom”, Besta Ntobela. 

READ MORE: Farmer’s love for soil led him back to the promised land

ADVERTISEMENT

“Besta is my Zulu mom. She started working on my gran’s farm in 1968. She remembers the day very clearly and she always tells me all these stories over a cup of tea.” He says working with her has been a great opportunity to understand somebody else’s perspective of what the farm is.  

“Us working together now is absolutely beautiful, it’s like we’re best friends,” he says. 

Brand spends most of his days in lockdown at his farm home on the south coast of KZN. Close to Canaan farm there is a large rural population. He says the atmosphere in this community is quite nonchalant. People there have still not come to grips with the potential effects of the novel coronavirus.  

“I think there has been a lot of changes that they have had to adapt to. There has been a shake–up of their normal day-to-day life and a lot of people are confused and a bit lost as to what the future is going be like for them,” he says.  

“The reality of the virus is still a bit of a joke for people here.”

“When you see the guys on the back of a bakkie and they’ve got their masks on, everybody has a good laugh at it, but it hasn’t really got into the communities yet, so I think the reality of it hasn’t hit us,” he adds.  

Lockdown has, however, been a great platform for farmers to re-evaluate the direction in which they want their businesses to go. They have broken boundaries in the industry despite challenges with support from government.  

“Farmers have upped their game!” he says proudly. “They have had to shuffle around the legislation providing the necessary precautionary or the necessary health materials like sanitizers and face masks.”  

READ MORE: Agri Careers – Soil scientist and agricultural maverick

His father made a great impact in his journey as a soil scientist. Brand says he never had any aspirations of studying science, but his dad’s lessons had underlying values he would learn to appreciate.  

ADVERTISEMENT

“My dad is very sneaky like that,” he says. “He never directly told me that I should follow science. He never really told me what to do, he kind of guided me. He provided me with the tools that I needed to figure things out, and by giving me certain experiences maybe sparked a flame in the scientific side of me.”  

Small-scale farmers are essential in meeting the demand for fresh produce in SA households, Brand believes. 

“We are very lucky to have small-scale farmers who have the indigenous knowledge to grow food. And we need to look at diversifying nutritional quality and the variations you get for it.”  

Brand believes that we need to work together with nature in order to make a success of a farming enterprise. “The land isn’t just going to do what we want it to do. We want to work with it, and together we can improve farming.”  

He advises future farmers to make soil their priority in securing the sustainability of a farm, even though it can seem that the business imperative is more urgent. 

“I understand the necessity of the business side is to make a profit, but at the cost of what? (This) is what we are going to discover one day when we realize that our soils are depleted and that the microbial systems that should be there are no longer there,” he warns. 

  • Morgan Brand’s full podcast interview with Food For Mzansi’s Dawn Noemdoe and Ivor Price can now be downloaded for free on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Subscribe to “Farmer’s Inside Track” on these channels for a weekly interview with Mzansi’s agricultural movers-and-shakers.
  • Click here to download the interview on Apple Podcast.
  • Click here to download the interview on Spotify.
Tags: Alfred CountyBesta NtobelaCanaanFarmer’s Inside TrackKwaZulu-NatalMorgan BrandPodcastsoil sciences
Previous Post

Exports a silver lining for cotton industry struck by covid-19

Next Post

Black tobacco farmers ‘won’t make enemy of government’

Noluthando Ngcakani

Noluthando Ngcakani

With roots in the Northern Cape, this Kimberley Diamond has had a passion for telling human interest stories since she could speak her first words. A foodie by heart, she began her journalistic career as an intern at the SABC where she discovered her love for telling agricultural, community and nature related stories. Not a stranger to a challenge Ngcakani will go above and beyond to tell your truth.

Related Posts

Through his company, Iboyana agri farming, Mhlengi Ngcobo is changing the lives of youth and women in his community. Photo:Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Self-taught farmer doing his bit for the greater good

by Duncan Masiwa
30th Jun 2022
0

INSPIRATION: Mhlengi Ngcobo's farm was a hub of knowledge sharing and excitement when dozens flocked to a training event in...

MEC Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi visited the Ntathakusa Citrus Farm in eShowe on Friday, 24 June 2022. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

ICYMI: Career boost ahead for KZN agri graduates

by Staff Reporter
27th Jun 2022
0

KZN’s MEC for agriculture and rural development, Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi, says her department is working hard at turning its agricultural graduate...

FMD: Farmers who notice symptoms of foot and mouth disease in their livestock should report it to local veterinarians as soon as possible. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

FMD outbreaks in Free State, Gauteng contained

by Duncan Masiwa
23rd Jun 2022
0

The fight against FMD is showing positive results in some parts of Mzansi. The spread of foot-and-mouth disease from three...

Vuyokazi Makapela, a director at Afrivet, Zamo Shongwe, Buhle Farmer’s Academy’s, finance and business director, Free State farmer Buchule Jack, Liviwe Finca, the founder of Amafemvula, and Justin Dziruni of Zazo Boergoats. Photo:Supplied/Foodf For Mzansi

Podcast: Here’s how to control and prevent rabies

by Vateka Halile
22nd Jun 2022
0

FARMER'S INSIDE TRACK: In recent months, certain provinces in Mzansi were affected by outbreaks of rabies. Afrivet director, Vuyokazi Makapela,...

Next Post

Black tobacco farmers ‘won’t make enemy of government’

Leave your comfort zone and make money, says foodie
Catering Company

Leave your comfort zone and start hustling, says foodie

by Vateka Halile
1st Jul 2022
0

MZANSI FLAVOUR: With a hustle and a bustle, Eastern Cape foodie Vuyelwa Makile found ways to alleviate her financial stress....

Read more
Recipe: Make Makile’s crispy chicken wings

Recipe: Make Makile’s crispy chicken wings

1st Jul 2022
Experts have warned farmers to prepare for another steep fuel price increase this month. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Caught in a price spiral: Farmers brace for major losses

1st Jul 2022
Parts of the Western Cape, such as the Central Karoo, are still experiencing drought. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Drought-burdened farmers receive R48m. in fodder

1st Jul 2022
Through his company, Iboyana agri farming, Mhlengi Ngcobo is changing the lives of youth and women in his community. Photo:Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Self-taught farmer doing his bit for the greater good

30th Jun 2022

Drought-burdened farmers receive R48m. in fodder

This week’s agriculture events: 27 June to 01 July 2022

How to make compost with kitchen scraps

E. Cape drought: ‘No hope. Our animals are dying’

ICYMI: Historic kickstart for Engcobo livestock economy

Get inside Africa’s largest combine harvester

THE NEW FACE OF SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURE

With 11 global awards in the first three years of its existence, Food For Mzansi is much more than an agriculture publication. It is a movement, unashamedly saluting the unsung heroes of South African agriculture. We believe in the power of agriculture to promote nation building and social cohesion by telling stories that are often overlooked by broader society.

SA forestry: Dynamite on a small patch of land

War on veggie meat names ‘to protect consumers’

What to look for when formulating dairy cow rations

Leave your comfort zone and start hustling, says foodie

Recipe: Make Makile’s crispy chicken wings

Caught in a price spiral: Farmers brace for major losses

  • Our Story
  • Contact Us
  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Copyright

Contact us
Office: +27 21 879 1824
WhatsApp line: +27 81 889 9032
Marketing: +27 71 147 0388
News: info@foodformzansi.co.za
Advertising: sales@foodformzansi.co.za

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Changemakers
  • Lifestyle
  • Farmer’s Inside Track
  • Food for Thought

Copyright © 2021 Food for Mzansi

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
Go to mobile version