Gift Ntombela showing a row of vegetables they grow at the farm.
Green Land Harvest in Daveyton needs the Benoni community to save it from the brink of extinction.
This organic food project wants to expand its farm, turning it into one of the most productive growers of organic produce in the area. However, the project needs all hands on deck as well as equipment to make this possible.
The farm which is now a registered corporation in Quantum, Etwatwa, was funded in 2016 by the National Development Agency (NDA) through Manger Care Centre. The idea was to introduce the importance of vegetation and the growing of organic food for the benefit of the community.
The corporation was officially registered in February last year as a non-government organisation to serve the community of Etwatwa.
The farm was previously managed by various members of the community for subsistence farming, but later the older citizens joined in 2015 and started farming together instead of each having their own patch of land.
Gift Ntombela, who had overseen the farm since 2018, took over from the elders as some of them could no longer farm due to health issues associated with their age, such as aching knees and back pain.
According to Ntombels, the Green Land Harvest is in need of assistance to increase farm production.
The project had 18 elders assisting, but the number has dropped to just four over the past two years.
“We did not have any experience in farming,” Ntombela explained.
“We learnt as much as we could from the elders, online tutorials, self-teaching and agricultural books donated to us by organisations such as Manger Care Centre and the Department of Agriculture.
The farm is now a youth-based corporation.
“We specialise in growing organic food, such as brinjals, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce and onions, and would like to expand the types of organic food we plant to increase production for the community,” he said.
The tomatoes grown at Green Land Harvest.
The farm is fully fenced and has a borehole which is sponsored by Manger Care Centre and NDA.
The project has five youth members who work on a voluntary basis to help with its progress and growth.
The farm supplies local households, supermarkets and restaurants with their produce. It also also assists at funerals when there is a need.
The project wants to expand and reach out to local markets in Benoni CBD, and to eventually expand to supplying retail vegetable stores and high-end restaurants in Benoni.
Ntombela said that the farm faces challenges. It lacks farming equipment, the reason it had to turn volunteers away because of lack of tools.
Tomatoes grown at the Green Land Harvest.
“We cannot do weed management because of the shortage of equipment.
We are producing food, but we can produce more if we get equipment to take on extra staff.
“The type of equipment and other items we need includes containers and crates to store our produce, seedling trays to move the small seedlings, toilets for the workers, office stationery, irrigation systems for the second phase of expansion (sprinklers), water tanks, supplier of wood-chips to help us with weed management, landscape fabrics for soil, lockers, showers, forks, tractors, rakes (rubber and steel), shovels, watering cans, weeding materials, insect control systems and other small equipment items that will multiply production on the farm,” said Ntombela.
The project aims to educate people about the importance of organic food to maintain healthy lifestyle.
The projects want to help reduce the diseases caused by the consumption of unhealthy food, to become food pharmacists, to outsource where they cannot grow their own food, to be part of food for change in the community, to open a food restaurant that will help create more employment in the community of Quantum and to give back to a variety of people, to teach them about healthy food, distribute fresh food products that will be of good help to old age homes, establish a nursery of their own to help communities around them as well.
Non-government organisation Manger Care Centre said the reason they chose to assist the farm was because of the dedication and enthusiasm they showed in farming, and in helping their community.
We supply them with seedlings on a regular basis, and have noticed that they are continually trying to expand and keep a constant flow of the growth of vegetables within and for their community.
Gift Ntombela showing rows of organic vegetables they harvest at the farm.
Gift Ntombela showing one of his experiments in the farm
Gift Ntombela at the Green Land Harvest at Quantum.
Tomato crate at the Green Land Harvest ready to be sold.
Gift Ntombela showing one of his vegetation growing on the farm.
“They have been successful in maintaining their crops and feeding their community from the seedlings we supplied them, and we also coach and monitor them,” said Naidene Andersson, training administrator and personal assistant to CEO at Manger Care Centre.
She added that the initial cooperative members received full plant production NQF level 4 farm management training from them as an accredited training provider with AgriSETA.
The funding received from one of Manger Care Centre’s donors contributes towards the training costs of Green Land Harvest’s two youth members’ qualifications in farm management NQF level 4.
Anyone interested in getting involved can contact 065 840 6441 (Gift Ntombela) or 082 560 3568 (Ntabiseng), or email gift.ntombela@gmail.com
