Pepper farm needs funding

Graduate’s green fingers work wonders in family’s garden, writes

ARMED with a BA degree in environmental management but unable to find a job, Sphamandla Dlamini, a 24-year-old from Lamontville, put his knowledge and skills to use in his family’s vegetable garden.

The environmentalist now works with his mother, Fikile Phiri, and sisters where they produce peppers and green beans for the market.

Dlamini praised his 54-year-old mother, who started the vegetable garden 10 years ago when she bought a piece of land in Twini near Amanzimtoti.

With no money to fence their crops, which were eaten by livestock (goats and cows), Dlamini recycled polystyrene bags strewn in the area to build a shelter for his plants which was later extended to a tunnel to grow 500 green pepper trees

Dlamini travels about 30km from Lamontville to Twini by taxi three times a week to tend to their crops.

While his friends were crazy about soccer he focused shrink and the pepper dies. If it is exposed to high levels of heat, it does not recover,” she said.

Phiri encouraged government and large-scale farmers to impart skills to the small-scale farmers by providing technological training and also with resources.

She said this would help sustain farming and allay fears on food security which have been a threat to the country’s food reserves.

“We do not get any form of funding. After selling our produce we buy seeds, fertiliser and provide an irrigation system for the crops. We draw water from the stream below using a water pump.

“It is expensive and we end up having no savings in the bank. Despite working so hard we still live from hand to mouth with not much to plan for the future.”

The family’s intention is to create a learning centre for the youth with the aim of inculcatin in them a culture of farming.