Sinethemba Masinga

We employ and transfer skills to women more because teaching them will eradicate hunger and poverty; we know that their families will benefit, but also the greater good will also benefit

Sinethemba Masinga was hoping to be a medical doctor or an engineer, but the hard-working farm girl in her would not leave her alone.

After acing her matric finals and receiving a bursary, she changed her mind and enrolled for a BSC in life and earth sciences at the University of Kwazulu-natal, majoring in biochemistry and microbiology.

However, a few years down the line into the degree, she lost interest, and her body and soul yearned for farming.

Born in Ndwedwe, northern Kwazulu-natal, Masinga, at the age of 15, became a director of Sinesthembiso Produce, a family business. So farming was, in fact, lying in wait for her back home. “Although I pursued a science degree, I fell in love with agriculture in my teenage years,” says the young chief executive officer. “But I lacked the knowledge to run an agribusiness.” The small-scale farm produces spinach and red ground nuts – spinach yields large profits while nuts are in high demand. Luckily, market access is not a problem.

“The problem is that we need more land to meet our market demand –the market is bigger than us,” she says. “We’ve recently started poultry farming to help fund the business.”

Masinga owns a second venture, Emseni, a non-profit organisation aimed at teaching school-attending children about the importance of agriculture to enhance food security and nutrition.