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August 2024
It is the second year that Gcinile Beauty Gumbi (53) is a finalist in this category. This diligent farmer from Uphizane farm in the Paul Pietersburg district, has always loved working the soil. While raising her children she started planting vegetables to provide for her family.
She currently plants different types of vegetables, maize and dry beans. Since joining Grain SA in 2013, she has attended five training courses and 69 study group sessions. She is working hard to realise her dream of getting more arable land to plant more hectares of maize and vegetables.
Although Mhlangenqaba Mkizwana (77) from Maclear in the Eastern Cape is the oldest finalist in the 2024 competition, he still dreams of becoming a commercial farmer. His devotion to agriculture comes from his parents, who were communal farmers. After school he left home to look for employment and started working for various mine companies in Gauteng.
In 1989 he returned home to follow his dream of becoming a full-time farmer, and he has never looked back. His agricultural knowledge has increased since becoming part of the Farmer Development Programme. He is the chairperson of the Gamakhulu Study Group.
Mfaniseni Paulus Khumalo (66) remembers working in the fields with his parents and siblings. After a company he worked for was liquidated, he decided to start farming. Before he joined the Farmer Development Programme, he used to get ten to twelve bags of maize.
Discovering Grain SA in 2019 was a game changer, as he managed to increase his yield to more than 4 t/ha. The next two years he realised 6 t/ha and last season he reached 7 t/ha. He is a member of the Lijahasisu Study Group and enjoys mentoring up-and-coming farmers in the area.
Mandla Enos Nkosi (52) developed a passion for farming at a young age, while working on the farm where he grew up. When the farm was sold, he worked hard to make money to realise his dream of being a farmer.
A transport contract he secured in 2014 helped him become financially stronger so that he could plant more than the 6 ha he first planted. Mandla joined the Farmer Development Programme in 2021. Study group attendance, mentorship and a training course have helped him to develop as a farmer, although his early years on the farm shaped him into the farmer he is today.
Jim Besabakhe Masemola (58) developed an interest in agriculture at a young age. He did not complete his school education due to challenging circumstances and started working on a farm in 1980. Years later he started working for himself and tried his hand at farming.
He used to get between five and six bags of maize per hectare, but after becoming part of the Farmer Development Programme in 2019, he started to farm seriously, following the correct production practices. In the 2019/2020 season, he harvested 4 t/ha of maize. Last season it increased to 6 t/ha and he is hoping for at least 7 t/ha this season.
Buyisiwe Steven Dlamini (55) was a farm worker for five years before leaving the countryside for city life in Johannesburg. While working as a delivery driver, he was saving up to buy his own truck so that he could start his own delivery business. This dream was realised and he still does transport as a side-line business.
He joined the Farmer Development Programme in 2018 and has been gaining knowledge through attending study group sessions and training courses. He gave his scrapyard business to his son in 2021 to focus on his dream of being a farmer. He now farms on communal land in the Volksrust area.
Although Dieketseng Gladys Mahlelehlele (38) has a BA Communication degree, she has always dreamed of becoming a farmer. She learned valuable agricultural skills working with her father, a big cattle farmer, over weekends and during school holidays. Dieketseng attended her first study group meeting in 2015.
She applied to lease the farm Vrede in the Brandfort area in 2019. It is the same farm her father leased years ago. Currently she is planting sunflower on medium-potential cash crop soil, but wants to lease high-potential land to grow the crop side of her business. She also wants to become a leading female farmer to inspire young girls to farm.
Zoliwe Nombewu (46) became interested in agriculture while helping her parents plant during the December school holidays. She started her farming dream by growing vegetables and sold the surplus to the community. When she joined the farmers’ organisation in her area, she discovered that there is business potential in grain production.
She now plants yellow and white maize, soybeans and cabbage on communal land in the Tsolo region in the Eastern Cape. She is the chairperson of the Sophumelela Study Group. This is the second consecutive year that Zoliwe has been chosen as a finalist in this category of the competition.
When Alfred Gondo (33) started working as a merchandiser, his interest in agriculture was ignited. He began planting in the 2015/2016 season, motivated by his late father’s passion for farming. He gained a wealth of knowledge and agricultural skills after joining the Farmer Development Programme.
In his first year as a farmer, Alfred planted only 20 ha, but this season he planted more than 100 ha – 62 ha soybeans and 42 ha white maize – at Koornfontein in the Middelburg region. He dreams of increasing his hectares to 500 ha in three years’ time and buying more farming equipment to be more efficient and productive.
Luvuyo Mbuto (61) only started farming in 2016 and now has a mixed farming operation at Altona Farm, in the Swartberg area in KwaZulu-Natal, where maize is produced. He has been a member of the Farmer Development Programme since 2020 and is also a member of the Ongeluksnek Study Group.
This is the second consecutive year that Luvuyo has been a finalist in this category. He says his “blood is green”, as he dreams only of crops and feed. His season does not start with planting, but when he harvests and sells his maize, because then his next business plan is compiled.
Petrus Ranko Tsotetsi (58) started farming in 2010 after the death of his father, Joseph, in 2009. He left city life and a secure income behind to honour his late father’s legacy and started farming full-time at Die Bult, near Kestell in the Free State. He successfully completed agricultural courses in 2013 and 2014 to gain more knowledge about farming.
Petrus produces maize, soybeans and sugar beans in a rotation system. He became a Grain SA member in 2013 and enrolled in the Farmer Development Programme in 2016. He was a nominee for this category in 2023 and is excited to be a finalist this year.
Bheki Isaac Mabuza (51) produces maize on his farm, Donkerhoek, in the Amersfoort region in Mpumalanga. He joined Grain SA in 2016, and has attended a training course and 65 study group sessions, where his farming skills have been developed. He was elected as the 2022 Grain SA Potential Commercial Farmer of the Year. He has since grown his farming enterprise and now falls under the New Era category.
One of his biggest achievements was finishing in the third place (amongst the commercial producers) in the category for maize production in the Eastern Highveld region in the 2021 Grain SA Grow for Gold National Yield Competition.
Publication: August 2024
Section: Pula/Imvula