Gauteng female farmers reaping rewards

In Gauteng’s sprawling rural landscape at Kings Farmers Agricultural Cooperative in Vanderbijlpark, women farmers like Loretta Visagie and Nolundi Msengana are rewriting the narrative of agriculture, confronting significant challenges with unyielding resolve.

Their stories are marked by perseverance and passion, revealing their struggles and progress. And now an energetic woman is the Gauteng MEC for agriculture, they believe they will no longer be overlooked due to their gender.

Problems beyond mere agricultural issues

Visagie, a farm owner, said her problems go beyond mere agricultural issues.

“There are a lot of challenges, especially theft. Some of us don’t sleep in our houses anymore. We stay in the two rooms by the fields to look after our investment.

“The farm is 589 hectares, with 320 hectares arable before the department suggested changes. Now I’m left with 290 arable hectares and the rest is grazing land.

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“We have cabbage and spinach. We’ve harvested and saved some grains to wait for the prices to go up,” she said.

Visagie does mixed farming of livestock, vegetables and soya beans.

This year was difficult because “normally with soya, we harvest about 3 to 2.5 tons. But this year we harvested only 0.5 to 0.6 tons. The reason was the lack of rain. We didn’t break even,” she said.

MEC noted the grievances raised

During the farm visit, Gauteng MEC for agriculture and rural development Vuyiswa Ramokgopa noted the grievances raised by the farmers.

Ramokgopa said stock theft and personal safety were big issues and women farmers were particularly vulnerable.

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“We plan taking up these issues with the department of community safety. We also need to work with other departments.

“We have periurban and rural land that we want to make productive for the people living in those areas,” she said.

Programmes to empower farmers

Maliviwe Mpayipheli, project manager of the Gauteng IDC Nguni Cattle Development Project, spoke of the role of support programmes to empower farmers like Visagie and Msengana.

“Our approach is to expand the farmer’s herd within five years. By the end of that, a farmer can easily have 150 animals.”