There is a saying that when you have a soil then you have food. Rise Africans Newspaper had a luck to get in touch with another hardworking farmer from rural area of Dokodweni, Gingindlovu, KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. Mandla Ngema (45) is a small-scale farmer who fell in love with farming since the age of 9. He told us about his memories of owning a small garden in the backyard, planting tomatoes, onions and other vegetables.
“Firstly, let me say congrats to Rise Africans Newspaper for a wonderful content. I attended my school at Xabiweni Primary (recently known as Thekelimfundo Primary), completed my standard 5 (grade 7) and my matric at Amatigulu High School. My love for farming led me to study farming and achieved my certificate under programme from Provincial Government”, he said.
Mndayi as popularly known, have more than 100 banana trees, specialises with sweet potatoes and other vegetables. Since vegetables are seasonal crops, he is currently busy with sweet potatoes and couple of trees of casava plants.
“There are lot of challenges we face, more especially livestock damaging and eating our crops, changing of weather and droughts since we do not have irrigations. We rely on rain, lack of funding and sponsor to improve our businesses is also a nightmare. This business is my only source of income and unfortunately, I do not have enough resources to market my business. I normally rely on social media, words of mouth and write note boards to advertise my business”, he added.
Farming career does not need a lazy people, one need to have love and passion and mostly not be afraid of DIRT! It’s not a quick way of getting rich, lots of patience is needed.
We are proud to see an African Child trying hard for survival. Mndayi’s vegetables can be ordered by:
Facebook account: Mandla Mndayi Ngema | 0722077341 (calls) |0661811408 (Whatsapp)
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