Never too old to become an award-winning grain farmer

Thirty-five years ago, Mhlangenqaba Mkizwana gave up working for mining companies to start farming his family’s communal land full-time. This still physically strong and enthusiastic 77-year-old is Grain South Africa’s latest Subsistence Farmer of the Year. He exemplifies how dedication, not age, determines farming success.

By Lloyd Phillips, senior journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad

It is a long, winding and bumpy, yet scenic, 35 km drive from Nqanqarhu (Maclear) in the Eastern Cape to Mhlangenqaba Mkizwana’s homestead and smallholding in the province’s deep-rural Gamakhulu Traditional Authority area. When African Farming arrives to a friendly welcome, there are young maize and vegetable plants fluttering in the breeze, dogs and pigs scampering around the yard, and sheep and goats impatient to be released from their kraal to start grazing for the day. The cattle are already grazing somewhere in the vicinity.

South Africa’s deep rural and often poverty-ridden traditional authority areas, such as Gamakhulu in the Eastern Cape, are often under-supported by the state. Grain SA’s Phahama Grain Phakama programme is assisting any willing residents of these areas to become self-sufficient in at least their grains production. Photo: Lloyd Phillips

Guiding and accompanying this journalist to visit Mhlangenqaba is Eric Wiggill, who is the national coordinator of Grain SA’s Phahama Grain Phakama farmer development programme. Eric also lives in the East Griqualand district, so he has had a long-time direct advisory role with Mhlangenqaba, and they have become friends.

Mhlangenqaba and his wife, Nodanile, have six children and nine grandchildren. Some live with the couple. As has long been the case for many Mkizwana family members, old and young, they are greatly dependent on the crops grown and the livestock raised by Mhlangenqaba and Nodanile. Some are consumed at home while the rest are bartered or sold for cash in the wider Gamakhulu community.

“I was born and grew up here, and I learnt the basics about raising livestock and growing crops when I was a boy,” Mhlangenqaba says.

“Since I came back here in 1989 after working for mining companies to start farming full-time, I have developed our 1,5 hectares of arable land to grow mainly yellow maize in summer. My wife has a small vegetable garden for potatoes, spinach and cabbages. In winter, I plant Japanese radishes in my harvested maize fields so that my animals have some extra feed. The radishes also help to loosen the soil.”

Mhlangenqaba now also owns and breeds with 31 Brahman x Nguni beef cows, about 50 Merino-type ewes, and 99 indigenous veld goats. As the herd and flocks produce calves, lambs and kids every year, Mhlangenqaba will occasionally slaughter one of the excess animals for home consumption. Any remaining excess livestock are sold to other residents of the Gamakhulu community for slaughter and consumption during festivities, like weddings, and during traditional ceremonies.

Fences of any kind, like this one around Mhlangenqaba’s precious yellow maize field, are essential in traditional authority areas to protect the crops from free-roaming livestock and to hopefully deter any thieves from helping themselves to the cobs. Photo: Lloyd Phillips

A staple in short supply

Yellow maize is Mhlangenqaba’s primary crop in summer. This is because it is both a staple food, namely for milling into maize meal, and an important ingredient in the supplementary feed he provides for his livestock.

“In the early days I was struggling to get good maize yields. I was planting seed that other community members had held back from their own previous maize crops. Yes, I was applying kraal manure and 2:3:2 (22) fertiliser at planting, but I just guessed the application rate. I was using no crop-protection chemicals. I manually hoed out as many weeds as I could. I was harvesting only 250 kg of maize grain from 2 hectares.”

During those days, Mhlangenqaba first prepared his lands with an ox-drawn single-row plough, followed by an ox-drawn two-row planter during October. If and when any maize reached about knee height, he would pull an ox-drawn hoe through the interrows to mechanically lift and kill any weeds.

With Mhlangenqaba now able to supplement his livestock’s nutrition with some of his yellow maize harvests, their resultantly improved productivity means more food and income security for the Mkizwana family. Photo: Lloyd Phillips

Harvesting took place in June and the maize cobs were – and actually still are to this day – all picked by hand.

The major turning point in Mhlangenqaba’s maize production occurred in the year or two leading up to 2008. He began noticing that some of his fellow subsistence farmers in Gamakhulu were consistently growing increasingly good maize crops with consequentially improved grain yields.

“I was curious as to why this was so. I asked them and they told me that they were participating in a farmer development project by Grain SA. There was an office in Nqanqarhu, so I went there with a taxi and spoke to the local project manager at that time, Sarel Pretorious. He arranged for me to join the project.”

“I really wanted to also improve my very low yields so that I could have more maize grain for my family and animals to eat, and hopefully even some extra to sell in my community.”

Eric explains that, based on its comprehensive institutional knowledge, Grain SA has developed a carefully considered “starter pack” of production inputs for participants in its Phahama Grain Phakama farmer development programme. Although the full cost of this pack – which is calculated for a hectare of production – is highly subsidised, the beneficiaries thereof must pay a fair portion of its total value. This is to avoid opportunists who are not serious about learning about and improving their grain production.

“Farmers who use their inputs pack properly will get crop yields valued at far more than what they paid for it,” Eric points out.

Mhlangenqaba says he paid R2 500/ha for his first starter maize production pack in around 2008. This amount has necessarily had to increase over the years due to inflation, but the pack’s true full price remains highly subsidised to this day by Grain SA.

An added benefit of Mhlangenqaba’s much-improved yellow maize production is that his cattle, sheep and goats can graze the harvest residues as additional and valuable nutrition source during the winter months. Photo: Lloyd Phillips

Correct use of the tools

“Before I even started planting with the starter pack,” Mhlangenqaba says, “I was given important training by Sarel. It won’t help if you are given the right tools but you don’t know how to use them properly first. Even after that I also went for other training by Sarel. And after Sarel left, Eric took over the training. Once or twice a year now we have farmers’ information days that Eric arranges for all of us farmers in Gamakhulu who are in the development programme.”

The initial training Mhlangenqaba received covered the fundamental principles of maize production. Grain SA’s experts, like Eric, developed this training to suit the needs of small-scale farmers like Mhlangenqaba with limited production resources.

“I was taught that before I start planting my maize and also after it has started growing I must give the field a spray each time to control weeds,” Mhlangenqaba says. “After the pre-plant spray, I must set up straight planting lines that are 90 cm apart. When I start planting, each seed in the row must be placed the length of one adult foot from the next. Each seed must be planted at the depth that is the same length as my forefinger.”

Resource-poor small-scale farmers like Mhlangenqaba often do not have access to precision farming equipment. So he simply uses his foot to measure out the correct and consistent placement of his yellow maize seed in the rows. Photo: Lloyd Phillips

Training also taught him to apply 4:3:4 (40) fertiliser a few centimetres away from where he planted a maize seed. This is far enough away to prevent fertiliser burn of the emerging maize seedling but not so far that the seedling’s young and short roots cannot access the nutrients from the fertiliser.

Mhlangenqaba was taught that if there was no rain at planting, he needed to irrigate each seed immediately using water from a knapsack sprayer, and the maize seed and emerging seedlings needed to be watered in the same way every day until sufficient rain had fallen.

“The day after planting, I also use a knapsack sprayer to apply pesticide to the soil above and around each seed. When the maize has grown to about knee height, I spray it again with a pesticide.”

Since he started participating in the Phahama Grain Phakama programme, Mhlangenqaba has stopped using oxen to plant and manage his maize. He says using the oxen requires more time and effort for 1,5 ha than simply planting by hand. Hand-planting is also more accurate. Furthermore, ploughing is not good for the soil’s health, structure and fertility. Mhlangenqaba now follows soil-conservation practices. For these reasons he does not mind that it takes him four days to plant 1,5 ha of yellow maize.

Eric says the Phahama Grain Phakama yellow maize starter pack currently uses Dekalb’s DKC74-74BR yellow maize hybrid, which is genetically modified to be both resistant to glyphosate herbicide and tolerant of various insect pests. It has also been bred to have high tolerances to the diseases common ear rot, diplodia ear rot, maize streak virus and northern leaf blight. It has very good tolerance to phaeosphaeria, and intermediate tolerances to fusarium and common rust.

“Given the various constraints that Phahama Grain Phakama’s participating farmers have, we feel that DKC74-74BR is the most forgiving hybrid because it’s not management intensive, it’s quite tolerant of challenging conditions, and it still yields well. It’s up to the farmers, though, to manage it properly so they can achieve the best yields possible.”

As a participant in the Phahama Grain Phakama programme, Mhlangenqaba grows the Dekalb DKC74-74BR yellow maize variety, which is hardy and otherwise well-suited to the production conditions common among small-scale growers. Photo: Lloyd Phillips

Proper procedures produce profits

The yellow maize starter pack now costs each farmer R6 800/ha. According to Eric, to cover this and labour costs requires a minimum yield of 3 tonnes/ha. Mhlangenqaba says he harvested 6 tonnes/ha during the 2023/24 summer even though rainfall was very erratic. He anticipates being able to yield even more during a summer of normal rainfall in combination with his continually advancing crop management skills and resources.

Seven to four days before planting, Mhlangenqaba will apply 2 L/ha Roundup to the field as a chemical burndown of any weeds and volunteer plants.

He will then plant the 10 kg maize seed at 90 cm row-spacing to generate a plant population of approximately 30 000 plants per hectare.

At the same time as planting, he will manually top-dress the soil along the planting lines with 200 kg/ha 4:3:4 (40) of granular fertiliser.

Uncontrolled thirsty and hungry weeds and volunteer plants are a no-no in Mhlangenqaba’s dryland cropping conditions. The ones in the interrows here are dying after Mhlangenqaba sprayed them using chemicals and following the instructions provided by the Phahama Grain Phakama programme. Photo: Lloyd Phillips

One day after planting, he will spray a mixture of 2 L/ha Bullet herbicide and 60 ml/ha Decis Forte insecticide to simultaneously prevent germination of any weed seeds in the soil and to kill any soil pests.

Four to six weeks after the maize seedlings have emerged, he will spray a mixture of 2 L/ha Roundup and 50 g/ha Halo 750 WDG herbicides, and 60 ml/ha Decis Forte insecticide. One week thereafter, he will apply 2 L/ha Bullet herbicide. These two spray applications will give immediate protection, as well as protection for the remainder of the maize’s growing season.

And six weeks after the maize seedlings have emerged, he will manually top-dress the standing crop with 150 kg/ha urea.

“We’ve been trained how to safely and correctly handle, measure, mix and apply the crop-protection chemicals,” Mhlangenqaba says. “We’ve been given measuring cups, and we wear masks, gloves and eye protection.”

Eric adds that Phahama Grain Phakama’s farmers are also taught the critical importance of strictly following all instructions for the use of the crop-protection chemicals, including the application rates. It is not always easy to get these often-inexperienced farmers to fully appreciate that under-applying to save costs and/or over-applying to “really hit hard” can potentially result in weeds and/or pests developing resistance to one or more crop-protection products. It requires constant reminding that should this happen, the potentially devastating consequences will likely be that there are eventually no more effective protections whatsoever against pests and diseases.

The minimum 6 tonnes/ha yellow maize yields that Mhlangenqaba now produces every summer is sufficient to variously pay for his “starter pack”; to feed himself, his family and their livestock; and to sell to the local community for cash income. Photo: Lloyd Phillips

Phahama Grain Phakama keeps evolving

“Another big challenge is with calibrating rates of application with each individual farmer,” Eric says. “Spraying with a knapsack is never 100% uniform because of factors like length of stride, walking speed, nozzle size and pumping pressure. In our training courses, we explain these factors to the farmers and we try to find a system for each one that achieves application rates as close as possible to the manufacturers’ instructions.

“Phahama Grain Phakama’s advisors are currently working with Michris Janse van Rensburg of Backsaver Farming Equipment to find a solution to at least generating and maintaining consistent pressure within knapsack sprayers.”

Mhlangenqaba says he never tires of learning new things about maize production and other types of farming. He enthusiastically absorbs the information about any developments across the production and value chain, from soil preparation to correct grain storage, to milling, utilising and selling it. For example, he has attended a course on the dangers of mycotoxins in stored maize and how to minimise this threat.

To the ignorant eye this may not seem like much to look at, but Mhlangenqaba’s livestock kraals are jam-packed with free nutrient-rich and organic fertiliser for his yellow maize and other crops, from the dung and urine of his animals. Photo: Lloyd Phillips

“Using the knowledge and experience from the Phahama Grain Phakama programme, I’ve also been able to improve how I grow some of our other crops,” he says. “I have also begun mentoring other small farmers like me with their own crop production. I am now chairperson of the Gamakhulu Study Group, and sometimes groups of other small farmers visit me to see with their own eyes how I grow my maize.

“If they are not already part of Phahama Grain Phakama, I get them to contact Eric.”

Thanks to Phahama Grain Phakama and, perhaps most importantly, to Mhlangenqaba’s efforts to make the most of the opportunities provided by this programme, he and his family now consistently have enough yellow maize for feeding themselves and their animals. In fact, about a third of their annual harvest is more than they need, so they sell it in the community for essential cash income.