First published on ProAgri, story by Johann Swiegers, Undercover Farming http://bit.ly/2g9Vxab

With long term commitment from all sides agricultural development projects can work, as proven by the Nwanedi vegetable project.
With the goal to improve production by the Nwanedi smallholder farming entrepreneurs in Venda the Kingdom of the Netherlands Embassy, the Department of Small Business Development, the RSA Group and ZZ2, South Africa’s foremost tomato producing company cooperate towards the success of the Nwanedi New Generation Cooperative (NGC). This Cooperative is comprised of 16 smallholders and ZZ2, a commercial farming entity.

With the majority being female farmers, the sixteen farmers are producing vegetables in the vicinity of a ZZ2 farm near the Limpopo River. The total area of the Cooperative covers more than 500 hectares. The establishment and the support provided to Nwanedi New Generation Cooperative is a pilot project emanating from a bilateral agreement between the South African government and the Netherlands Government to work together in the field of cooperative societies. This agreement is designed to facilitate the improvement of knowledge by growing smallholder farmers towards commercial farmers – therefore it is based on the concept of a business to business cooperation while the two governments play a facilitating role.

NGC is to be developed with the sixteen farmers that produce tomatoes and other vegetable crops. ZZ2 is the commercial farm involved, represented by its CEO Mr Tommie van Zyl. The development of the NGC will be supported by a Working Group consisting of the RSA Group represented by Mr Gjalt Hooghiemstra, the ICCO Cooperation, represented by Mr Piet van Ommeren, the WUR/Nyenrode represented by Professor Gert van Dijk and the North-West University represented by Professor Louw van der Walt.

Following the Netherlands Embassy and ZZ2 intervention, the goal is to also improve the cooperative’s productivity, their entrepreneurial capacity and marketing options for tomatoes and other vegetables. The farmers are to interact by exchanging information and put to practice what they learn from ZZ2 and technicians. NGC needs to change away from archaic leadership principles and become disciplined managers cooperating in a joint effort to bring success and progress to their area. It will also be of value to them to be trained and listen to people with agricultural insight and experience over many years to continually progress their farming business.

With the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Netherlands in South Africa, Mrs Marisa Gerards, a delegate consisting amongst others, Mr. Bernard Likalimba; the Netherlands Embassy’s Senior Policy Officer for Agriculture (representing the Office of the Agricultural Counsellor), the Director General of the Department of Small Business Development; Ms.  Edith Vries and two of her directors, Mr Winston Baatjies and Mr Tlou Nong; the Project Manager, a representative of the RSA Group; Mr Vusi Mlambo, Mr Piet Prinsloo; Marketing Director of ZZ2 and some of the female farmers of Nwanedi Cooperative visited the farmland of Annikie Malukuta next to the Nwanedi river.

Mrs Malukuta invited the delegate to view the dry riverbed and said she could not plant tomatoes this season because of the extremely dry season South Africa is still suffering from in many areas. There are plans on the table to improve her situation with the necessary infrastructure to enable her to increase production on her land. In Venda the soil quality is most conducive to optimal production of vegetables and citrus. According to ZZ2 the harvest of 160 000 tons of tomatoes per hectare is average in winter.

Shonisani Ndou’s farm was also visited where jam tomatoes are grown. The crop looked well but a week prior to the visit, the farm experienced a cold spell and subsequently frost killed the plants. Tomato pickers were busy picking the ripe tomatoes for the tomato paste factory in order to recover some of her input costs. Ndou is said to be one of the most successful farmers as she also produces baby marrows and patty pans on her 30 hectare land.

ZZ2 Marketing Directro Piet Prinsloo discussed the water situation with the farmers who were present. According to him, although the soil looks dry, when sinking a borehole, one will be able to pump water to a tank or reservoir. The farmer should realise, especially in drier periods that the pump can only run for shorter periods as the subterranean water needs time to rise again and also if the pump runs dry, it may soon burn out.

In the area water is about 70 metres below the surface and of good quality. Therefore bore holes can be sunk in the area to obtain water. Prinsloo said that a dam wall can eventually be built not far from the New Generation Cooperative land and a pipeline from there will transport water to the productionarea. “However, it will need the farmers to group together and cooperate with government and interested parties to make a decision and see that it is executed by a certain date,” he reiterated. “Farmers will then be able to irrigate on a rotation basis and so distribute water evenly in order to carry on farming in the area. Cooperative decision and planning is therefore a necessity and depends on the farmers to agree and work together.”

During the raining season, a thunder storm can deliver between 35 and 75 millimetres of rain. These come down three or four times during the early season for a few hours only and with the sun shining afterwards it makes the tomatoes grow well. In February, the rain comes down more evenly and ensures good crops.

The sandy loam soil in the area is ideal for planting as the roots are kept moist but it is not drenched, therefore the plant has ideal growing conditions. After a survey by ZZ2 was concluded in the area, it was found that there is around 40 000ha arable farm land on which very profitable production can take place, but somehow so far is overlooked. Prinsloo is of the opinion that in future greater emphasis will be put on the northern part of South Africa for agriculture. Being fairly close to the main transport artery of Africa, the area could play an important role in future as far as food security is concerned.

“At Nwanedi there is a support and services centre from where extension services are offered. The Timbali Incubator was funded by DAFF and is used as an information centre to the 250 smallholder farmers in the area. Four permanent extension officers work from the centre and use motorcycles to visit the farmers. There is also one person based at the centre from the Department of Agriculture.  The sixteen Nwanedi farmers in close proximity to the centre have excelled in their farming over the years and that is why strong focus is put on them to progress towards a commercially independent cooperative,” said Mr Tlou Nong.

“An area was cleared to start another cooperative. The Department Of Small Business Development invested R7.8m on infrastructure such as the centre and tractors and implements for the farmers and a cold truck to move fresh produce to markets. All this is intended to empower the 250 farmers eventually under a secondary Co-operative consisting of eight primary cooperatives.

“The majority of the 16 farmers average turnover during the previous season was between R800 000 to R900 000 and during the last season average R2,2m. The rest of the farmers took input loans from a commercial bank at high interest rates and needs to be consulted on how to procure funding at the lowest interest rate in future,” explained Tlou Nong.

“Another major problem producers are faced with in the area is transport for their produce to markets. Harvesting at dawn, the produce is exposed to the sun until a truck arrives the same or next day which means the produce landing on the market are of lower standard.  It is therefore imperative for the farmer to contact the centre to know exactly when the truck is available for his produce until such time as more trucks or own trucks are purchased to effectively deliver a good product. At Nwanedi a careful schedule is held for the picking up of produce from farmers as they arrange pick up for specific days and it works out well for them. The cooperative made a decision amongst them to obtain a cold truck and they approached the Department of Trade and Industry in 2014. After inspecting the economic viability for cold transport the truck was delivered this year,” Nong said.

The delegates visited a ZZ2 farm facility where Prinsloo motivated the farmers to coordinate harvesting, selection and packaging and then sending to the market to obtain the best price possible. As far as loading is concerned, the most economic loader is a 34 ton trailer. They have now moved up to a 46 ton trailer as part of a road train.

This is beyond the scope of a single smallholder farmer. The only way for them to load the above capacity to be economical is to group together and work out a programme for harvesting and packing the maximum a trailer can take, and be ready when it arrives. This will most probably lead to the building of a packhouse. When the farmer harvest and the produce are packed on the loading/selection area, the crop goes from R zero to R800 /ton. From the load/selection area to the packhouse the price goes up to R1 100 /ton.  When it reaches the fresh produce market, the produce jumps to R3.00 / Kg. According to Prinsloo, the most important buyer on the market is the lady hawkers. They know the prices and have a fixed retail price. They are being well supported and are a very real part of the fresh produce value chain.

The Nwanedi New Generation Cooperation formed by these 17 farmers, the Netherlands Embassy, ZZ2, the Department of Small Businesses Development and DAFF (which is to provide technical support) is intended, with the right attitude and good agricultural practices, over and above a spirit of cooperation and sharing to become a superb example on which the rest of the group of 250 farmers and the whole of Venda and Limpopo can build to expand food production in the north of South Africa.