Giyani farmer follows in grandfather’s steps
He says he was only eight years old when started to drive a tractor in his grandfather’s banana orchard.
34-year-old Xitshembiso Robert Mtsetweni from Giyani is an award-winning farmer who is following in his grandfather’s footsteps. After water from the Middle Letaba Dam dried up in 2004, they moved to Maswanganyi and thereafter to Siyandhani, planting cash crops. In 2009 he dropped out of university and returned to work for his grandfather and five years later his grandfather bestowed the Siyandhani farm upon him. “I started farming properly in 2016, planting beetroot, onions, spinach, mustard, butternut, green pepper, okra, chilies, and tomatoes,” he says.
In 2019 he received a grant to purchase a tractor, a two-hectare irrigation system, seedlings, fertiliser and pesticides. “From there it grew to the point where I was named runner-up in the Mopani Young Farmer Awards.” Students from the Tompi Seleka College of Agriculture trained on his farm. “I also initiated a programme to adopt students studying agriculture at Kheto Nxumayo Agricultural High School to do practical training on my farm.”
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Mtsetweni says in 2020 Eskom started to implement an aggregate method of three-phase electricity combining his farm with his grandfather’s other farms, making his electricity expenses too high and unaffordable. Due to this, he had to retrench his ten full-time employees and had to stop operations due to a lack of water. Overcoming this challenge, Mtsetweni opted for a smaller pump using a generator and in March this year, he planted green peppers and tomatoes on less than a hectare employing one full-time and three casual workers.
“Two months ago, we suffered a fire which we suspect was started by disgruntled cattle farmers who used our land for grazing after we stopped production in 2020. We lost fencing material and two hectares worth of irrigation pipes.” In the midst of this, he and other farmers in the Greater Giyani area started the Greater Giyani Farmers Association which represents more than 271 farmers. “We have asked the MEC to engage and assist farmers in Greater Giyani.
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We even engaged with traditional leaders to avail land for farming purposes,” says Mtsetweni. Mtsetweni has also revisited his Kheto Nxumayo programme by plowing a field for a school and hosting lectures for the learners on soil preparation, irrigation systems and plant science. Mtsetweni says he aims to acquire solar power in the future for his three boreholes and hopes to expand if he can secure a drip irrigation system for five hectares.
He hopes to plant two hectares of tomatoes and cabbage and three hectares of butternut. To achieve this, he needs seeds, fertiliser and pesticides. “I’ve recently inherited four goats and constructed a goat pen and use the manure as fertiliser,” he says. “South Africa has so much potential of being the food basket for the entire world, but our politicians fail aspiring black farmers by not providing access to land and capital, depriving us an opportunity to grow financially,” Mtsetweni concludes.
