• Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • News
  • Lifestyle
Nomxolisi Mathe holds a Masters’ degree in education and was an English teacher for two decades before she started farming with eight other women in Benoni, about 40km east of Johannesburg.

The thriving farm led by black women

27th March 2022
Many people love avocados, but did you know that the introduction of just one of these fruits per day can improve the overall quality of your diet? Photo: Pixabay

An avocado a day can keep the doctor away

10th August 2022
Davidzo Chizhengeni, animal scientist, founder of KvD livestock, Ika Cronje, farmer and participant in the Corteva Women Agripreneur 2022 programme, Vuyokazi Makapela, a Director at Afrivet, and permaculture farmer, Stephanie Mullins. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Podcast: Prevent rabies with vaccination

10th August 2022
ADVERTISEMENT
Control and prevent downy mildew on crops

Control and prevent downy mildew on crops

10th August 2022
The value of South Africa’s informal farming sector is understated, experts say, and many farmers say that they prefer trading to this segment of the economy. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

New farmer? Informal markets ‘the way to go’

10th August 2022
Gauteng police recovered and confiscated sheep and goats in Sedibeng this week. Photo: Supplied/SAPS

ICYMI: Police recover stolen livestock

10th August 2022
Ecological farming the answer to food insecurity

Ecological farming the answer to food insecurity

9th August 2022
Setting up a regenerative smallholding

Setting up a regenerative smallholding

9th August 2022
Determination drives this #SoilSista to succeed

Determination drives this #SoilSista to succeed

9th August 2022
The women who dared to start farming in Mzansi when few others would. Photo: Food For Mzansi

She bosses: ‘We see farming changing for good’

9th August 2022
Refiloe Molefe has vowed to build a new urban farm after the City of Johannesburg bulldozed the site she built in Bertrams. Photo: Supplied/GroundUp

ICYMI: Mama Fifi determined to rise again

9th August 2022
Agripreneur 101: Creating a beauty brand

Agripreneur 101: Creating a beauty brand

8th August 2022
Claire and Martin Joubert have sacrificed and struggled to become top breeders of Ankole cattle in South Africa. But giving up was never an option, because they wanted to offer only the very best Ankole genetics in the country. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Farming couple lives and breathes Ankole cattle

8th August 2022
  • Home
  • News
  • Changemakers
  • Lifestyle
  • Farmer’s Inside Track
  • Food for Thought
11 GLOBAL MEDIA AWARDS
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Food For Mzansi
  • Home
  • News
  • Changemakers
    • All
    • AgriCareers
    • Entrepreneurs
    • Farmers
    • Groundbreakers
    • Innovators
    • Inspiration
    • It Takes a Village
    • Mentors
    • Movers and Shakers
    • Partnerships
    Agripreneur 101: Creating a beauty brand

    Agripreneur 101: Creating a beauty brand

    Claire and Martin Joubert have sacrificed and struggled to become top breeders of Ankole cattle in South Africa. But giving up was never an option, because they wanted to offer only the very best Ankole genetics in the country. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

    Farming couple lives and breathes Ankole cattle

    Tackling climate change, one tree at a time

    Agricareers: Veterinary science not for the timid

    Agricareers: Veterinary science not for the timid

    Once struggling farm now a family heirloom

    Optimal yields now at farmers’ finger tips

    Some of the children with the ECD practitioner Yolanda Shabalala. Zero2Five Trust promotes holistic Early Childhood Development in formerly disadvantaged areas by improving learners’ health and education outcomes with nutrition and education programmes. Photo: Supplied/Zero2Five Trust

    Zero2Five: Giving hope to KZN flood victims

    Agripreneur 101: Kupisa Sauce is going places

    Agripreneur 101: Kupisa Sauce is going places

    Ncumisa Mkabile, is a farmer, community activist that has won numerous awards for her work in agriculture. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

    Farmer, influencer, go-getter – Ncumisa’s all that

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

The thriving farm led by black women

by Magnificent Mndebele
27th March 2022
in Female Farmer, Movers and Shakers
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
Nomxolisi Mathe holds a Masters’ degree in education and was an English teacher for two decades before she started farming with eight other women in Benoni, about 40km east of Johannesburg.

Nomxolisi Mathe holds a Masters’ degree in education and was an English teacher for two decades before she started farming with eight other women in Benoni, about 40km east of Johannesburg. Photo: Funiwe Ngwenya

‘Why have you decided to put your qualifications into your wardrobe and go into farming?’ Nomxolisi Mathe, 68, recalls her friend asking after she retired as a teacher for farming.

She holds a Masters’ degree in education and was an English teacher for two decades and the vice principal of a TVET college in Richards Bay, Kwa-Zulu Natal. After resigning in 2005, she mobilised a group of eight women to initiate an idea to buy land for farming. They went to the Local and Rural Economic Development (LRED) in Pretoria to request funding to purchase land.

“I have always been very passionate about farming,” she tells me.

ADVERTISEMENT

How Sungula Trading was born

Mathe says they identified a 19-hectare plot of land in Benoni, about 40km east of Johannesburg. After negotiating the price of the plot, LRED funded each of the women with R25 000, which they combined and purchased the plot as a group. However, the owner had another plot equal to the first which she preferred to sell along.

The women donated from their own pocket to buy the second plot, making them owners of a 38-hectare farm.

To kickstart, Mathe says the government donated them three tunnels. They started farming tomatoes and cucumbers, which they sold in the market. This is how their farm, Sungula Trading, was born. But since its inception, a lot has happened. It has endured and surpassed various obstacles.

From 2009 until 2016, they got contracts to supply vegetables to six hospitals and three safety homes around Gauteng. The contracts boosted their business and they were able to purchase six more tunnels from the proceeds of their vegetables. Pleased by such commitment and growth, the government offered them ten more tunnels.

Planting different things

But there were financial challenges with some of their clients. “They did not pay us, it was really bad. We had to chase that money back and forth. There’s still one who owes us for a contract that ended in 2016,” Mathe says. “It was really tough, but we’ve tried to pull through. We ended up planting different things, and it is difficult if you don’t have take-off agreement because the market is a gamble.” It is unreliable and prices fluctuate.

Mathe employs fourteen permanent staff, four interns and frequently hires seasonal workers. Photo: Funiwe Ngwenya

 

From tomatoes and cucumbers they have diversified quite extraordinarily. Some of the vegetables now found in their farm include turnips, beetroot, peas, green and bush beans, a variety of spinach, baby marrow, cabbages, broccoli and sweet potatoes. They also grow curry tree and herbs such as turmeric, parsley and geraniums for essential oils.

All of the produce is organic.

The list isn’t yet over. There’s also livestock in the farm. They own 30 sheep and 32 indigenous chickens with colourful feathers which take longer to grow compared to the commercial white-feathered chickens (which they also have). Mathe says she has a constant market in Soweto for the commercial chickens.

Active members in the farm

The majority of Mathe’s partners are still active teachers. It is only Ntokozo Dubazana and her 38-year-old daughter Fikile Ngcobo who are actively involved in the farm. Seated at their packhouse, built from the profit ploughed back into the business, Ngcobo tells me how much she enjoys working with her dearest mother. “I’m learning a lot from her,” Ngcobo says. “Sometimes she cooks for her workers out of the blue. It is very nice here. She has a big heart by the way.” – Fikile Ngcobo

ADVERTISEMENT

As imbokodo with support from the rest of izimbokodo, nothing will ever deter them from reaching this goal.

While Ngcobo explains, her mother fondly jumps into the conversation. “Oh, do I have a big heart?” Ngcobo agrees. “So this is what you think of me and you’ve never told me?” They both laugh. Ngcobo continues, “But when she’s angry, she gets pissed for real and she’s not scared of us. When she wants something to be done, she really wants it.”

Keeping it as a legacy

The owner that Mathe and her team bought land from was an old woman who loved farming so dearly with her husband. But they couldn’t preserve their farming legacy as their children did not care about farming, Mathe says. She says she’s happy that at least her daughter is active in the farm. “I can rely on her. I know that [I’ve groomed] someone who knows everything about farming. We don’t want what’s happened to the previous owners.”

Solidaridad and the future

On the farm Mathe has employed fourteen permanent staff, four interns and frequently hires more occasional workers during rainy season and when in need of assistance during the harvesting period. She has built rooms to accommodate some of her workers, who stay within the farm. Each of them is responsible for a tunnel, including the interns.

The prospect of farming for Mathe and her team looks bright. The spirit of imbokodo (a word from the Nguni languages to describe women) runs very deep inside her and the team. This year in February they joined Solidaridad, which helps producers in developing countries to attain a fair price for better products. Solidaridad describes itself as having “more than 40 years of experience in supporting producers in achieving economic, social and ecological sustainability.”

All of the produce grown on their farm is organic. Photo: Funiwe Ngwenya

Through Solidaridad, Mathe tells me they succeeded in getting a take-off agreement with the Yukon group, which produces a range of speciality vegetables and microgreens in South Africa. As a start, they are anticipated to produce 300kg of green beans, 60kg of beetroot and 120kg of turnips every week. Apart from take-off agreements like these, Mathe says they supply some of their vegetables to the informal traders.

Mathe says she has big goals, which she wants to achieve shortly. Currently, they are only farming on the first plot and for the second plot of land which is still unused, she wants to venture into something new – aquaponics and vertical hydroponics. “Hydroponic really interests me. But next I am going for vertical hydroponics — which is able to have a lot of plant output. Now you can be organic and hydroponic as well.”

“We want to farm strawberries,” she says. And it does not end here, she aims to supply vegetables to the rest of the world. As imbokodo with support from the rest of izimbokodo, nothing will ever deter them from reaching this goal.

Tags: agribusinessAgripreneurFemale FarmersKwa-Zulu NatalVegetablesWomen Empowerment
Previous Post

Nompilo Mathe may not be a pro, but she reigns in the kitchen

Next Post

Farming couple has their eyes set on the beef export market

Magnificent Mndebele

Magnificent Mndebele

Magnificent Mndebele grew up in Thokozane, an impoverished village. He values journalism that covers remote rural areas from a socially committed perspective.

Related Posts

Determination drives this #SoilSista to succeed

Determination drives this #SoilSista to succeed

by Nicole Ludolph
9th August 2022
0

As a child, Junior Perekwa’s December holidays were dedicated to visiting her grandparents and helping them farm. Now a farmer...

This week's Gather To Grow session featured Njabulo Maseko, mixed farmer in Mpumalanga, Lufano Netshikhudini from anointed farming trade and projects, Leshalagae Mojapelo of BK Agric Traders in Polokwane, and poultry and crop farme, Taetso Tsebogo. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi

Farmer 101: Tips for growing cabbages

by Vateka Halile
25th July 2022
0

FARMER'S INSIDE TRACK: South Africans love their cabbage - imagine fried chicken without the slaw? This popular leafy green is...

Hendrick Haas and Anna Cloete members of the Kenhardt cooperative believes that they are the game changers in terms of food security in their area. Photo: Supplied/Aisling Phillips

NC co-op becomes their town’s food source solution

by Tiisetso Manoko
20th July 2022
0

IT TAKES A VILLAGE: A group of women in Kenhardt became fed up when they had to travel long distances...

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

Farmer gets his hands dirty while building family empire

by Zolani Sinxo
24th June 2022
0

INSPIRATION: David Mthombeni and his family have experienced the bad and ugly of life, especially in apartheid South Africa. But...

Next Post
Farming couple has their eyes set on the beef export market

Farming couple has their eyes set on the beef export market

The value of South Africa’s informal farming sector is understated, experts say, and many farmers say that they prefer trading to this segment of the economy. Photo: Supplied/Food For Mzansi
News

New farmer? Informal markets ‘the way to go’

by Tiisetso Manoko
10th August 2022
0

Apart from the 40 000 commercial farmers in Mzansi, hundreds of thousands of smallholders contribute to the economy too. Many...

Read more
Gauteng police recovered and confiscated sheep and goats in Sedibeng this week. Photo: Supplied/SAPS

ICYMI: Police recover stolen livestock

10th August 2022
Ecological farming the answer to food insecurity

Ecological farming the answer to food insecurity

9th August 2022
Setting up a regenerative smallholding

Setting up a regenerative smallholding

9th August 2022
Determination drives this #SoilSista to succeed

Determination drives this #SoilSista to succeed

9th August 2022

This week’s agriculture events: 08 to 12 August 2022

Farmers fight on despite lost export markets

Ecological farming the answer to food insecurity

Women farmers bolster Tiger Brands value chain

Tackling climate change, one tree at a time

Control and prevent downy mildew on crops

THE NEW FACE OF SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURE

With 12 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.

An avocado a day can keep the doctor away

Podcast: Prevent rabies with vaccination

Control and prevent downy mildew on crops

New farmer? Informal markets ‘the way to go’

ICYMI: Police recover stolen livestock

Ecological farming the answer to food insecurity

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

Contact us
Office: +27 21 879 1824
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.