Four up-and-coming South African fruit farmers, Andreas Klaase, Belinda Williams, Debrah Theunissen and Liza Ambraal, along with Nigel Klaasen, winner of the Western Cape Prestige Agri-Award, recently returned from a market access capacity building tour to the Netherlands and the Fruit Logistica in Berlin.
Tracy Marobobo, one of the top performers in the Sernick Group’s farmer development programme, gave up an engineering career to continue her father’s farming legacy. Tracy and her husband, Thukela, farm alongside her father, Matoo Khothule, and are setting a great example of successful succession planning. Peter Mashala visited them on their farm in Ventersburg in the Free State.
When Thabo Mavundza’s academic journey to become a medical doctor took an unexpected turn, the South African agricultural industry was gifted with a bright young mind. A bold and forward-looking agricultural engineer, Thabo leads Westfalia Fruit Africa, a multinational supplier of fresh fruit and related products. Peter Mashala met Thabo in Tzaneen to learn more about his journey.
The first crop of female farmers has completed the first phase of Momentum Metropolitan Foundation’s Women in Farming programme in Pietermaritzburg. This programme seeks to upskill and integrate the young farmers into value chains, in the process stimulating rural food security and local economies. Robyn Joubert reports on an initiative that’s tapping into agriculture for the greater good.
