ISPAAD FARMER BENEFITS FROM EARLY RAINS
Onalenna Kelebeile | Monday March 24, 2014 17:28
Tobane farmers including Mothembiso were the first to welcome the good rains at the start of the ploughing season last year when the area received 100mm of rainfall. Mothembiso did not delay but started preparing her farm in Dambashalala farms and ploughed nine hectares of beans. Just last week she says she sold 11 bags of beans to BAMB making over P7,000 in profit.
With only three years into farming, a retired accountant who invested her retirement package into farming, said she ploughed all the nine hectares with donkeys and used the traditional planting method, which she said produces more yield than the common broadcasting method.
“I expected to harvest 30 bags from each hectare but now the persistent rainfalls threatens to reverse that. All stores are full of products that need to be sold but I cannot thrash under this weather,” she said.
Mothembiso added that beans are a lucrative business to BAMB as she earns P700 from each bag as compared to other farm products hence she concentrated on different varieties of beans this ploughing season.
“The good thing about beans, despite rains delaying their processing, is that they can continue to flower immediately after the rainfalls subside hence more produce. I therefore anticipate to reap about 100 bags of beans at the end of the ploughing season,” she said.
Tobane village farmers in general are reaping the benefits of early rainfalls. They sell most of their farm products in Selebi Phikwe and surrounding areas. Mothembiso said this year’s yields are much better compared to the last two ploughing seasons. Last year she reaped only seven bags of beans from the three hectares that she ploughed following massive destruction of her farm by elephants.
“I am still looking forward to harvesting more from the maize, water melons and lab-lab that I ploughed alongside beans. I have already started marketing my farm products to schools in Selebi Phikwe so that I can start supplying them,” she said.
She said as a newcomer in the farming business she only knew BAMB as the only available market but she now intends to explore the international market as she harbours a dream of becoming a full time commercial farmer. Apart from selling to BAMB she also sells to individuals who visit her farm to buy her farm products. She does not enjoy the benefits of farming alone but has created employment to many underprivileged locals whom she engaged as casual labourers to harvest, thrash and package.
She said this saves time and costs of employing permanent employees. She ferries casual labourers from Tobane to the farm to work in the farm and they get paid according to the work done.
She said most of the temporary workers she engages have expressed happiness as they receive payment immediately and therefore are able to meet their needs quickly. They also receive a commission in the form of a bag of harvest depending on a certain amount of harvest.
‘I pay them on a daily basis so I never run short of labour,” she added. Mothembiso also intends to make a kill out of the lab-lab that she planted in November and January as she said it has a lucrative market that she wants to explore. She said a bag of lab-lab is P1,500 at BAMB. “I have been told that the Ministry of Agriculture has managed to secure a market for this stock feed outside the country.”