An emerging farmer, Yonela Ngewu (26), from Cheka location in Tsolo, is determined to make a success of her farming business, after using the monthly R350 social relief of distress (SRD) grant as capital to resuscitate her farming project.
Ngewu, with only a matric certificate and no farming background, started working as a subsistence farmer in August 2019, planting vegetables for her family, but decided to venture into commercial farming early last year, when she managed to buy 200 broilers. Her plan was to breed chickens and sell them in her community.
Tragedy struck a few weeks down the line when a fire engulfed the house where the chicks were being kept and they all died from the fire.
Determined to make a success of her business, Ngewu was thrown a lifeline when government introduced the monthly R350 social relief of distress grant for unemployed citizens in response to the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
“I decided not to spend the R350 monthly grant payments from government but instead started putting the money into a savings account and in June last year, I managed to buy vegetable seeds and broilers from the savings to restart my farming business,” Ngewu said.
She said, through the support of her parents, she has managed to build a structure to grow the broilers and planted cabbages, spinach, carrots, and potatoes on a two hectare portion of the home garden that she grows and sells in her community.
Ngewu has also ventured into a piggery and is now selling piglets to her community. “My dream is for my business to grow to a point where it is able to create employment for many unemployed young people in my village. I also want to be a supplier of choice for vegetables in my village and beyond and help those in need by donating surplus vegetables to them,” said Ngewu.
She further revealed that her local headman has allocated her 10 hectares in the village which she plans to have fenced and operate all her farming projects from it.
Ngewu said an accomplished farmer in her village was mentoring her and further thanked the community for the support shown in her farming venture.
