Theresa Makola witnessed the love her parents had for farming and the community. Not only did the crops help their household, but Makola realised that farming helped bring food security and alleviate poverty. She went from nursing patients to plants and is one of the women selected for Corteva Women Agripreneur 2022, a year-long blended development programme at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) Entrepreneurship Development Academy (EDA).
Growing up in a small village, Jane Furse in Limpopo, Makola’s late parents Elizebeth Magashula and Daniel Magashula laid the foundation by growing their own crops. Though her parents were subsistence farmers, their crops such as dry grain stretched far and wide to help their community.
“When I look back, I can see how they were participating in food security, prevention of hunger and poverty as well, as they were charitable,” says Makola.
The family, however, sold some of the crops minimally to be able to survive as a household.
The apple didn’t fall far from the tree, as she continued to farm on her own years later.
Makola decided to pursue a career in nursing in 1980-1983. But when she wasn’t nursing humans, Makola nursed the plants in the fields. She adds that this brought joy to herself, the family and the community at large.
“When I was off duty I would go and help my parents in the field. The community was very happy and that made me feel good.”
Lessening the burden
A huge lesson that Makola was taught by her parents was to have a business mindset and a heart that gives and takes care of others.
Her parents used to ask neighbouring farmers who did not have the means to grow crops, to use their land for farming. This helped to create jobs.
“[My parents] would then ask the owners to participate in weeding and harvesting and at the end of the day, they would share the proceeds. The other thing they would do was ask or sometimes people would volunteer to come and help them.”
Because Makola’s parents set this kind of example, her family contributed to food security and the alleviation of poverty and hunger.
As a nurse working in hospitals, she witnessed plenty of malnutrition and diseases.
“Mostly [I] would see diseases related to poor nutrition such as pellagra in adults, kwashiorkor and marasmus in young kids. That’s when I discovered with farming this can be eradicated, and I continued [the work] with my parents.”
From nursing to being nursed
Life became a rollercoaster for Makola when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer in 1987. She then relocated to Pretoria to be closer to specialists to help in her fight against cancer.
Makola fought for her life during the toughest battle. She continues to be in complete remission since 1996. “God gave me another chance,” she says happily.
“After I was told cancer had cleared, I started my food garden in my backyard in Pretoria.”
Makola decided to go back to nursing, but then took a leap of faith and went abroad to Dublin in Ireland for three years.
After her return, she joined the military as a nursing lecturer.
In 2017 she continued with subsistence farming and grew some vegetables and mielies in Pretoria. However, she desired more land to expand her farming upon her retirement from the military, but could not find anything in the area.
Because of the inability to get more land to expand her farming vision, Makola decided to return to Limpopo and leased land at Suikerbochplaats.
Farming full-time
In 2020, Makola retired from nursing in the military and she, together with her farming partner, Magdeline Paledi, decided to go into a growing commercial farming business. She adds that she was never alone during this journey as she had a great support system.
“I have my farming partner and friend, Magdeline, together with the support of my husband, John; my sister-in-law, Rera Makola; and my aunty Magdeline Makofane, who is our mentor and rich with indigenous knowledge; as well as the caretaker affectionately called Mossie.”
The crops they are farming are mielies, Bambara beans, ground nuts/peanuts, sugar beans and cowpeas.
Land aquisition and other challenges
Even with a circle of great support, Makola faces difficult challenges in farming like land acquisition, lack of funds and security.
“We applied [to acquire land] but there was no reply. Two years after applying, I’d get a reply that the application was unsuccessful.”
What is upsetting to Makola, is the fact that there was no further explanation to help with the land acquisition process, which feels like a giant storm.
She had so many plans with the farm but due to the lack of funding, has to put everything on hold. When she retired, she explains, there were funds released to her by the military, which she used to reskill herself in hydroponic farming. Unfortunately, she could not continue for now because lack of money to buy equipment.
Furthermore, people stole some of the crops when she started commercialising.
“The people don’t take farming like a business, they expect you to give everything that you have. They don’t realise that you have to sell so that you can continue to plough back into your business.”
Life-changing Corteva programme
Makola believes in women’s empowerment as an agripreneur.
“Those that wish to be farmers, the advice I have for them is start small, then you will grow. As you grow, you will know what your strengths and weaknesses are. Don’t be discouraged, My life history itself says ‘in life never give up’.”
She adds that it is important for women to work together and fight for success in the sector with each other and for each other. “To them I say, remember if we walk together and support each other, we will go far.”
The Corteva programme was a godsend, Makola says, as she was taught invaluable skills that have taken their business and love for farming to another level.
“I am now empowered, aware of the things that I didn’t know being an agripreneur. It is also motivating because in this programme you meet farmers from different walks of life with different skills. We share ideas and experiences and it’s a perfect platform for networking. It helps to expel the fears and myths that farming is for men.”
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