She is barely a year into her farming journey, but Pretty Seabela from Limpopo is already seeing the fruits of her labour. With people from her village in Limpopo queuing every day to buy her fresh produce, this crop science and production graduate is on a mission to succeed and grow her enterprise.
Seabela started farming on one hectare of land where she grows spinach, lettuce, carrots, and beetroot.
“I am from a farming community. My grandmother is a farmer, my parents used to do farming, and this is where I drew my inspiration to go into farming. Whenever we visited my grandmother, we know we will come back with some of her produce.
“This to me was inspiring and led me to take this journey, because we are a farming family,” she says.
The 23-year-old says she initially wanted to study archaeology, however her final marks were not good enough. She opted for agriculture instead. And she has no regrets of choosing it.
She finished her qualification in crop science and production at Tshwane University of Technology and is currently furthering her studies in agriculture management at the University of South Africa.
Serving the local market
Seabela says working the land fills her heart as she loves to connect with nature and see plants grow. What motivates her further, is getting her hands dirty to feed the nation.
“Following the in-service training that I did, I thought ‘why can’t I start my own food garden?’. It was a small idea, now it is really expanding to something that will require me to look for a bigger piece of land.”
When it came to finding a market to sell her produce to, she did not have to look very far. “I supply people who are selling kotas in the village with my lettuce, and spinach it gets sold from my home, so people come through every day to buy spinach.
“I am looking to grow and be employer in my community and I believe that one needs to get the basics right and learn as much as possible.”
“We are from a village, so this type of produce sells like hot cakes, it is an everyday meal for some and having to just walk to get it is a bargain for many.
“I work on my own so I cannot go out and sell, so people come through my place to buy. I started in December last year and sold my first produce in March and April and the feedback was good, so I continued with it, and it is going well thus far.”
Her mother, Manama Seabela, is her pillar of strength as she also helps her in the business by standing in for her when she is not available when clients need the vegetables.
Going the extra mile
Even though Seabela has been studying agriculture, she is not done learning and constantly strives to increase her knowledge.
Seabela travelled almost 200 kilometres from Dennilton in Limpopo to Johannesburg to be a delegate at Food For Mzansi’s two-day conference. She says it was eye opening for her and the farming business.
“Before attending the Indaba, I never thought of having plans for my business, but now I have to do them because they are important. I just registered my business, but I learn that it is way more than that.
“I learnt about food safety, I leant about how to access market, I learnt about soil preparations. These are the things I did at school, however, I have never applied them, so the Indaba exposed me to how important they are in running a successful farming business.”
Now she has a fresh perspective on how to deal with business, she adds, as farming is a business that has the potential of creating jobs.
“I now know when approaching retailers what do I need to have in place and how to better manage the expectations.
“Marketing my produce is still a problem as I am a starter and still have to do a lot of things on my own, however this is a learning curve for me which I am ready to apply and use it well,” she explains.
Rising through the challenges
Seabela says she had a challenge of water, but her parents came to her rescue by drilling a borehole for her.
“Although that is sorted out, I still use a hosepipe to water my produce, I do not have a proper irrigation system. With time I believe that all will fall into place.
“I am looking to grow and be employer in my community and I believe that one needs to get the basics right and learn as much as possible.”
Seabela adds that expanding is on the cards because people need food and those food need to be produced. “In order to have a sustainable food security we need to have more farmers producing food for the nation.”
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