Organic farming is what Green Land Harvest Primary Cooperation, based in Etwatwa, is all about.
The farm is run by youngsters Gift Ntombela, Khanyisile Magudulela and Siyabonga Mashininini.
The farm was previously managed by various elders of the community for subsistence farming in 2016. However, in 2018 Ntombela took over the farm that was officially registered in 2019.
The self-taught farmers described farming as their life.
“We are what we eat and we need to control what we put in our bodies,” Ntombela said
The trio wants to keep everything manual when they farm and do not believe in using pesticides or any other chemicals as farming to them means construction, self-preservation, healthy living, self-resilience, teaching and learning.
The City Times sat with the trio and asked them the following questions:
What do you grow?
We grow organic vegetables, which include red onions, kale, egg plants, swiss chard and beetroot.
How do you make a living out of farming?
We used to sell our vegetables at the Saturday market. We supplied to a small coffee shop and we had a stall in the shop where people could buy our vegetables. However, due to Covid-19 we have to regroup and come up with a new plan.
What are the challenges of farming?
One of our biggest challenges is miseducation about the vegetables that we grow as they are not in high demand in our area.
We only grow organic so our vegetables are not as big as those that were chemically enhanced.
Finance has also been a challenge of late as we would like to buy tools that we can use to properly equip that farm.
We also have trouble finding GMO free seedlings.
What advice would you give emerging farmers?
Read as much as you can on farming and know that everything you do will not be correct. However, you will learn from the mistake.
The rose among the thorns, Khanyisile, decided to take on flower farming as she loves flowers and watching them grow.
“I love how the colours of the flowers change and how a seed can grow into something beautiful. I didn’t expect to farm, it has taught us about nature and that there is always something new that can happen,” she said.
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