The NCT Forestry Agricultural Co-operative Limited recently announced the winners of its annual Tree Farmers of the Year awards. This competition recognises exceptional silviculture practices, environmental management and augmentation of operations.
By Lloyd Phillips, senior journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad
Godi Isaac Nsele of KwaZulu-Natal’s Manguzi district was recently named NCT’s Small-scale Tree Farmer of the Year for 2025. He entered the forestry sector in the early 1980s as part of industry efforts to promote community afforestation in Zululand. However, his involvement was cut short for several years after he was arrested and jailed for his political activism at that time.
“Thankfully, he was released in time to harvest his first trees in 1997. In preparation for this, he had already joined the NCT Forestry Co-operative in 1996,” states NCT’s News & Views publication.
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From only a few hectares, over the years Nsele has expanded his forestry enterprise to now encompass 200ha. He employs 10 full-time and five seasonal workers, and his son operates a forestry contracting business.
“Mr Nsele is also known for his generosity in helping others. He supports aspiring timber farmers in his community by planting and harvesting the first rotation for them. Once these new farmers inherit the coppice, they are empowered to continue farming independently.
“Mr Nsele’s journey from hardship to leadership reflects a remarkable legacy of perseverance, vision and giving back.”
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Adaptable and Willing to Experiment
Matthew Crowe is a fourth-generation forester on Fairfield Estate in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands’ Sevenoaks district. He was named NCT Commercial Tree Farmer of the Year for 2025.
According to competition judges, Crowe has been remarkably forward-thinking in his responses to various challenges and opportunities for his 982ha forestry enterprise.
Such responses include replacing 26ha of Eucalyptus dunnii compartments with Acacia decurrens so that Fairfield Estate can capitalise on wattle bark mills’ decision to start accepting bark from green wattle trees for processing.
Crowe is also phasing out future plantings of E. dunnii because of this specie’s susceptibility to damage caused by the pest insect the Eucalyptus snout beetle (Gonipterus scutellatus). These will be replaced with plantings of Eucalyptus grandis × Eucalyptus nitens hybrid clones, wattle clones or green wattle, depending on the planting site.
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NCT’s News & Views reports that Crowe is highly adaptable and experiments continually to find ways to keep improving his enterprise’s productivity, profitability and sustainability. He is trialling various planting spacings to achieve optimal timber quality and yields; where possible he tries to avoid burning harvest residues that can otherwise improve soil health and fertility; he plants trial plots of new tree varieties; and during harvesting no three-wheeled loaders are allowed into compartments because these machines damage coppicing.
“If you do your very best every day, you have to succeed,” says Crowe.
