For Vumile Mzinzi, farming isn’t a business; it’s a passion. This Eastern Cape farmer treats crops like patients, applying pharmacy-honed discipline to plant health, soil fertility, and honesty in business. Read his story in this episode of the Farmer Mentor series.
On any given morning in Ugie, Eastern Cape, the same man who once stood behind a pharmacy counter is now more likely to be found inspecting the leaves of young maize plants or with his hands in the soil. Vumile Mzinzi chose to leave behind the certainty of medicine for the uncertainty of farming.
You may wonder: How does a trained pharmacist end up tilling hundreds of hectares of land? The answer has always been in his blood.
“I grew up as a farmer under my father because my father is a farmer. Basically, as you grow up under your father who’s farming, you always learn what he does. Even if the father is not a farmer, whatever the father does, you always, as a son, learn what the father does.”
That early training deepened when his father lost his job in 1995 and returned to the land for survival. For Mzinzi, then a teenager, farming was no longer just a backdrop; it became a calling.
“I was also a very good farmer by that time in my early teen years. I really loved farming,” he recalls.
Still, when the time came to choose a profession, he chose pharmacy, even while continuing to help his father in the background.
The years rolled on. He qualified, built his own business, and opened a community pharmacy that still serves Ugie today. Yet, even success in medicine could not silence the pull of the soil.
“When I was back and done with varsity, I reflected, and then I felt like, man, I love farming. That’s where it started to boil inside me.”
By 2014, he was back in the fields alongside his father. By 2020, he was farming full-time. The pharmacy he founded remains open, run by another pharmacist, while Mzinzi pours his energy fully into the land.
The cost of resilience
Farming, however, has not been a smooth journey. It has tested his resilience in ways he never imagined. He recalls one season when he insured over 300 hectares.
“You pay over one million. And then there is no hail. There’s drought. And then you feel like the million that I just paid is a loss. It’s a waste,” he says.
The very next year, unwilling to lose money again, he skipped insurance. That was the year hail came, wiping out half his crop. “And then you feel like, what must I do now?”
Still, walking away was never an option.
“If you’re a farmer, you must have a passion. Because if you don’t have a passion for farming, you’re going to quit. We always quit every day. Tomorrow, we will start farming again. We start stronger than yesterday.”
That grit carried him not just through weather disasters, but financial struggles too. For 13 years, he farmed without assistance, using savings from his pharmacy to sustain the business. Only recently did he receive support for the first time.
“Everything I have done, I have done without any assistance. It was not easy,” he reflects.
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Precision and discipline
If passion kept him in farming, discipline helped him grow. Coming from medicine, where precision is non-negotiable, he applies the same mindset to crops.
“As a farmer, you know plant health. You have to deal with chemicals. We do a lot of soil corrections. We do a lot of soil improvement in terms of fertility. The pharmacy part helps a lot with that.”
That scientific discipline is matched by his business integrity. “Always meet your targets. Don’t overestimate yourself. That’s my rule. I always try to make sure whatever I promise, I’m going to meet it. I don’t run away from anybody,” he says.
Over time, that reputation has earned him trust from leading suppliers, who now know his word is as good as payment.
For Mzinzi, farming is about more than maize or yields. It is also about people. When he first joined his father in the business, he noticed that wages were sometimes late.
“I’m like, these people, how can they be happy if they are paid on the 31st and then actually paid on the 5th? For the last five years, we’ve been doing very well. We’ve been compliant with Sars. We’ve been doing UIF. We have employees who are happy, are paid on time.”
He believes that care for people is as critical as care for the land. “Take care of your employees, they are the gems of your farm,” he advises.
Eyes on the future
From starting with just one hectare to now farming over 300, Mzinzi’s eyes remain fixed on the horizon.
He dreams of owning land instead of leasing, building storage facilities and processing plants, and one day selling produce under his own brand.
For now, he celebrates the victories along the way, like being able to pay off a tractor in two years instead of six, signing contracts that sustain his business, and creating jobs that sustain families.
“It’s been very, very tough, but it’s been good. We are at another level at the moment,” he says proudly.
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