TSOO...13’S SMART FARMING YIELDS QUALITY CROPS

Smart Farming is seen to be the future of agriculture as it yields higher quality crops following the success of Tsoo...13’s produce. The duo behind Tsoo...13, Sonny and Thato Mokgadi, also saw the potential of smart farming and decided to produce Grade A tomatoes through hydroponics, a process of growing plants in sand, gravel, or liquid, with added nutrients but without soil.

Narrating their journey, Mokgadi who was a former fashion designer said the road hasn’t been smooth, as they encountered a lot of bumps along the way. She said when they ventured into farming in 2012, they planted 10,000 cabbages on an open field and only managed to harvest 17 heads of cabbage.

“We did not give up but we rather were inspired to try other vegetables. We then planted tomatoes and it was promising as the years went by,” she said.

In 2017, they decided for one of them to benchmark in India where Sonny was more focused on learning about smart farming as they decided to make the switch to do hydroponics instead of planting on the field. Unfortunately, when he came back, cyclone Dineo hit, which they said affected their production as by then they were already close to harvesting. The cyclone was also followed by the heat waves.

“All these natural disasters did not discourage us as we kept on planting and selling what we harvested. We were by then practising smart farming, which my husband had learnt more about in India. Smart farming is nature positive, we do soilless farming through hydroponics,” she said.

In 2019 they approached the National Development Bank (NDB) that saw the viability of the project and funded them. Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) also came on board by offering technical assistance to the project. LEA also deployed Botswana University of Agricultural Natural Science (BUAN) specialists, who had been instrumental in the project.

Mokgadi said their production has also increased as they plant about 24 tonnes of tomato monthly from a one and a half hectare. She said the retailers, which they supply are impressed with the Grade A tomato that they produce. Shoprite was the first retailer to open doors for their products, who then distributed them across their shops in Botswana.

“Through their retail chain, Shoprite managed to assist us supply Checkers shops as well. The past season Spar also bought our tomatoes and we are grateful that we will also start supplying Woolworth’s chain stores across Botswana after they approved our produce. They came to conduct their tests and were happy with the overall product,” she said.

A local entrepreneur, Yamkani Foods also has been supportive, as they have been buying their products to resell in their stalls. Touching on their future, they plan to export their products to other countries as they trust the quality of their product does meet the international standard.

“Our hybrid nature positive production system allows growers to focus on improving yields, offering lower unit costs to processors and includes the development of commercial strategies and technologies to ensure the quality standards required by the global market,” she said.

Currently, the company has employed about 38 people including the four that started the journey with them in 2012. They include the two crop scientists who graduated from BUAN.