Nomsa Ngwenya has a master’s degree in agricultural science, but instead of following a conventional career, she decided to set up an organic farming business in the Mopani District of Limpopo, specialising in cocktail tomatoes, herbs and moringa.
“My passion for agriculture started when I was introduced to different science programs by the University of Limpopo,” Ngwenya recalls. “On the university farm, I learned how to drive a tractor… This encouraged me to study agriculture. Ultimately, my farming passion was influenced by two things: My dad and the gap between the farming community and access to innovation.”
Ngwenya explains that the biggest influence was her dad. “He was not educated, but when I completed my B.Sc Honours in Agricultural and told him I was looking for a job, he told me that if he were as educated as I was, he wouldn’t go around looking for a job, but would create jobs.”
Furthermore, the gap she identified was when she saw how many of the University’s land reform projects failed. “I attributed it to the gap that existed between the farming community that needs to get innovation from research results done by academia, but could not access it due to different reasons. Related to this, academics do not know the day-to-day reality of the farming world and are unable to encourage the farming community to adopt their research findings. So, I wanted to bridge the gap because I could participate in both sites.”
Her farming enterprise, Ntl Baraka Eco-Farming, was established with the aim of achieving these goals.
Sowing Hard Work and Reaping Failure
“As a student, I used to do a lot of odd jobs to make money and save. This helped buy a farm at the completion of my degree, and I didn’t need any loans,” she shares. “But I had no clue on how to buy a farm or a property correctly, which made me lose a lot of money to a farm owner who made me pay a deposit on the farm, which was later taken back by Land Bank, who said the previous owner owed Land Bank money for the same farm’s purchase.
“Additionally, I didn’t know about market access requirements (Global GAP or Organic Certification), which helps one access consistent and lucrative markets. This led me to lose a lot of money due to the inability to access those markets after planting and harvesting.”
But Ngwenya’s journey isn’t all doom and gloom. Thanks to the Kagiso Trust and the SPAR Rural Hub farmer development programme, her story quickly turned around.
Female Farmer of the Year
Currently, Ngwenya supplies over 52 tonnes of cocktail tomatoes annually to the market through the SPAR Mopani Hub in South Africa. Her recognition as Female Farmer of the Year by The Kagiso Trust’s Tyala Impact Fund further underscores her achievements. She reinvested her prize money into solar-powered irrigation systems, improving both efficiency and sustainability on her farm.
Things were difficult without international certification or transportation for her products to market. But not all was lost. Ngwenya said her journey took a positive turn in 2022 when she joined the SPAR Rural Hub programme, which provides small-scale farmers with resources, training, and access to markets. The programme provides small-scale farmers with resources, training and access to markets, and Ngwenya says it was “a game-changer”.
“Spar provided both markets and market access knowledge, and also helped a lot with the costs of inputs. Production advisory made farming very pleasant for me,” she elaborates. “When I was named Female Farmer of the Year, it was one of the most special moments in my life because I then concluded that the previous struggles were not in vain.” Ngwenya highlights that the impact it had on her life was immense. Up until that point, her biggest challenge was a lack of water. “With the award money, I built a huge water tank, which made it possible to expand and grow more crops.”
Kagiso Trust committed R3 million in funding to support 10 outstanding farmers from the Mopani Rural Hub Programme through the Agri-Awards. Candidates consisted of those who had demonstrated significant improvement and profitability during the financial year.
“This to me showed that farming without proper collaboration, mentorship and markets is not just difficult but can be impossible to bring sustainability.
Woman in a Male-dominated Industry
“I initially thought it would be beneficial to be a woman in a male-dominated industry, because I heard about ‘women empowerment’. Turns out, it was just sugar coating,” Ngwenya admits. “But I later felt it was very advantageous for me because, as women, we have always been in the forefront in terms of food safety and the need to supply good quality food to families, so it became easy to adapt the food safety standards, which helped a lot with market access.”
In the future, Ngwenya plans to establish a processing factory for moringa-based products. Furthermore, she is also keen to explore opportunities in turmeric coffee and morula oil production
