QUEEN OF HER LAND
This is my dream, says top young farmer
● When she started a vegetable garden at an Mpumalanga school in 2016, Njabulo Mbokane could not have imagined that three years later she would be running 200ha of farmland.
Earlier this month in Caledon, in the Western Cape, the 24-year-old reaped an even sweeter reward when she was named South African Breweries (SAB) and FarmSol young emerging farmer of the year. FarmSol aims to develop emerging farmers.
Cheering from the sidelines was her mother Thembi, who worked as a clerk for 35 years and used her pension savings to fund her daughter’s dream.
The farm in Kalkbank is on a remote gravel road, about two hours’ drive from Ermelo.
“When the tractors are in the field, on rainy days and ploughing season, that’s when I get this unexplainable feeling. I’m a farmer at heart,” said Mbokane.
The leased farm supplies SAB with nongenetically modified yellow maize. Mbokane is also expanding into livestock, with an initial 25 sheep. She has three full-time employees, and up to 13 farmworkers during the busy harvesting season.
“There was a time when I felt like I had no future. My mom encouraged me to follow my dreams. When things didn’t go right she stood by my side, like when cows would eat the crop and I would not make a profit.”
Her parents could not afford to send her to study after she completed matric in 2013, so she opened a tuck shop, later adding takeaway food. She wanted more, so in 2016 she approached two schools and asked to use their land to plant vegetables, which she then supplied to the schools for free.
“I realised this was what I loved. No-one in my family has done any farming but they were supportive regardless.”
After knocking on many doors, an old woman in her community agreed that she could use 70ha to farm. This opened another door, as a local farmer then agreed to lease 200ha of land to her. She said her confidence comes from remaining true to herself. “You don’t have to dress or behave like other farmers to be one.”
For Thembi, investing her pension was an easy decision because she believed her daughter had found something that she loved to do, and was committed.
“But I sometimes worry about her because she takes herself too seriously. So when things don’t go the way she thinks it should, she gets so anxious she barely eats.
“It took her dad, Joseph, a while to get used to his daughter farming, but he is also very supportive.”
As a young black female farmer, Mbokane realises she is up against many forms of bias.
“I meditate a lot, so I’m able to calm myself. But it can be too much; sometimes I want to quit because it’s so hard. Sometimes I have to remind people that I’m the boss, because I’m young. People can be disrespectful, some look at me in disbelief when I tell them I run a farm. Critics are there, but most people want to see me prosper.”