"From high heels to gumboots"

Kgomotso Ramatlo has swapped her high heels for gumboots and is not looking back.

The saying that “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity” is attributed to Roman philosopher Seneca. Kgomotso knows very well that had she been underprepared, she would definitely have missed out on the opportunity to supply a formal market.

Formal markets are notoriously difficult to penetrate for smallholder farmers, as the conditions are often onerous and challenging for them. It was a determined move that opened the door for Kgomotso in her first attempt.

For 15 years she worked for a bank, starting off as a receptionist and landing up as a Manager of Small Enterprises. However, for most of that time she dreamed of becoming a farmer.

This passion was sparked by childhood memories of helping her grandmother produce the vegetables that fed Kgomotso and her siblings. Her grandmother “grew anything she could get her hands on,” and her garden was a refuge in which Kgomotso would hide to find the solitude that, as a loner, she craved.

By the time she was retrenched in mid-2019, she had spent several years researching how best to make the career change. “I found out all that I could, which included spending a lot of time with a friend who had already gone from the corporate world to farming,” she remembers. “I realised that to be successful, I would have to make it a career, not a hobby.

“The retrenchment was the push I needed to swap my high heels for gumboots and go for it,” she says, laughing.

Research and education emboldened her to find markets even before her farm grew large enough.

The first meeting at Savemore landed her a wholesale client. “The fresh produce manager said they had no spinach on the shelves, as other supplies had let them down. He asked if I could supply 500 bunches the next morning, picked that same morning.”

Businesswoman that Kgomotso is, she quickly moved things into place. Her business records to enable supply and efficient payments were available. Opportunity was meeting her where she was prepared.

Kgomotso hired extra workers and the next morning they worked flat out. By 10am, they were able to harvest 300 of the bunches. “Instead of arriving late, I decided to take those 300 bunches to Savemore and tell him the rest were coming within hours. I fulfilled the order, and he was really pleased,” she said.

Kgomotso chose to study Vegetable Production at Buhle because it offered practical experience, but the greatest investment to her business may have been engaging Buhle’s Farmer Support division as mentors after graduation.

“Mentorship has been my biggest form of support. The guys at Buhle have been amazing, and our class has a WhatsApp group in which we chat and share information, which helps me a lot.”

After her graduation in November 2019, and using her savings, she began leasing five hectares of land in Brakpan, Gauteng. She self-funded the costs of leasing the land, preparing it and setting up an irrigation system. “I was lucky to find someone prepared to lease their land at a reasonable fee,” she says.

Working on two of her five hectares, at her latest harvest Kgomotso was producing 600kg of sweet potatoes and 1000 – 1500 bunches spinach weekly. This was just six months after she started out.

In recent months, in response to market needs, she has expanded commodities to include cabbage and beetroot.

The farm supports two permanent and up to eight seasonal workers.

“My plan is to produce 5000 bunches of spinach a week, but one of the most important things I’ve learnt is to start with what will work and grow from there,” she says. “There’s no point in planting 20 hectares and then being devastated because you don’t know enough and your harvest fails.”

Many aspiring farmers ask her if they need training. “I tell them it makes a huge difference,” she says.

Over the past few months she has relied on her technical skills to steady her through tough times. She is currently ploughing all her profits back into her farm, closely following her 12-month business plan.

Loans and grants are increasingly tough to find, she said. “A rosy picture has been painted of the support available to black women farmers, but it’s not the truth. I knocked on so many doors, but I’m realising I’m on my own.”

Her advice to other new farmers it to “pace yourself and start out small”.

More than anything else, farmers need to do meticulous research, understanding every aspect of farming to maximise their production and make a profit.

ENDS

Introducing Buhle

There are many thousands of new farmers in South Africa who have access to arable land but don't have the skills, guidance and capital they need to grow a viable farming business. Buhle Farmers’ Academy is a non-profit organisation that trains, mentors and supports these aspiring farmers.

We offer holistic courses covering all the farming and management skills that new farmers need (see Programme section for more details), and trainees come from all over the country to learn at our campus near Delmas, Mpumalanga. Our farmer support offices mentor as many of our graduates as possible, and we manage several programme providing financial support to some of our most promising alumni.

Since we opened our doors in the year 2000 we have grown from strength to strength, and have now trained about 6 000 emerging farmers - half of them women and 60% of them youth - in vegetable, crops, poultry and livestock production, and mixed farming. Even better, about 12 000 jobs have been created due to Buhle, based on the assumption that for every new farmer established, at least one additional job is created.

Our Mission

Buhle’s mission is train and support aspiring farmers from across South Africa to run farming businesses that are both profitable and sustainable. The effect is that we are helping to alleviate poverty by creating jobs, while ensuring food security.

Over the years, Buhle has developed a best-practice model that could help make a huge difference in helping to transform agriculture in South Africa.

In the rural and poorest areas of our country, the biggest employers are government, agriculture and mining. Most of these employers are unlikely to radically increase their take-up of employees. Our biggest hope lies in developing a culture of entrepreneurship, and agriculture is one of the key sectors for doing so.

Universities and training colleges are expensive and have strict academic entrance criteria, which many aspiring farmers cannot fulfil. They need accessible, practical training with the follow-up coaching and support that enables them to overcome the myriad, unpredictable challenges of agriculture.

Buhle fulfils these needs.

Our History
In the years after 1994 – when South Africa became a democracy – our newspapers were peppered with stories of how farming ventures fail after being handed over to black farmers. It became clear that transferring land was simply not enough. Emerging farmers also needed farming skills and ongoing mentorship.

A group of concerned citizens with agricultural expertise decided to address this problem. In the year 2000, they got together to form the Food Health Hope Foundation and, under its auspices, Buhle – meaning “It is good” – was established.

Our founding partner was Monsanto, now Bayer, who donated to us the fertile land that became our training farm and gave us the start-up capital we needed. We developed our first curriculum in conjunction with Tshwane University of Technology, focusing on vegetable production as it has a short production cycle. Two years later, we added poultry, livestock and crop production courses.

In 2004, we registered the Buhle Farmers’ Academy as an NPO in order to continue our fundraising efforts. We have grown from strength to strength over the years. From our first cohort of 57 students in the year 2000, we trained over 500 in 2018, and we have now trained almost 6 000 farmers over the years.

Our heartfelt thanks go to every one of our funding partners. With your backing and partnership, we are indeed fulfilling our mission: to transform dreams into reality for many thousands of aspiring farmers.

Our Approach

Buhle has developed a best-practice model for training aspiring farmers, which includes:

A sound theoretical knowledge base in agricultural technology
Competency based practical skills training
Training in farm business management
Training in appropriate life skills
Effective follow-up and support services.

Our People

Our staff are the people who make it all happen, and behind us is the highest authority of our organisation, the Board of Trustees of the Food Health Hope Foundation.

The Board oversees our vision, mission and activities. Motivated entirely by their sense of philanthropy, they donate their time, knowledge, experience and prestige to help grow and guide the Buhle Farmers’ Academy.

A picture of our staff on each campus is below, and underneath that is a list of our board of trustees.

Our Partners

Our heartfelt thanks go to every one of our partners, who make our work possible:

Buhle seeks Farmer Support Officer

Are you a qualified and experienced Farmer Support Officer (FSO)? If so, Buhle would love to hear from you. We’re seeking a FSO based in Venda to advise and support our smallholder farmers. Please read the job advertisement below carefully and send your CV with a covering letter to careers@buhle.org.za by 26 January 2021. Only short-listed candidates will receive a reply.

Farmer Support Officer

Based in Vuwani, Venda

Salary: R15000 pm

Job Description

The Farmer Support Officer’s (FSO) purpose is to support and advise smallholder farmers towards viable and sustainable farming enterprises. For this project in its third year, the key task is linking farmers to markets, through influencing the production process and negotiating on behalf of farmers. The FSO should have experience in all aspects of vegetable farming including value chain development. The project requires strict, ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the farming operations to ensure that the farmer is able to produce crops of high a quality. This project is suitable for a networker who pays attention to detail and who may already be familiar with local markets.

Tasks

Source and secure markets for the farmers produce.
Create opportunities using farmers’ strengths, whilst developing against weaknesses.
Ensure farmers maintain business solutions, such as bank accounts, maintain registered companies etc.
Develop quality monthly reports and maintain a register of all projects supported by the Academy; monitor and report on the progress of these project.
Attend market linkage forums with that aim of marketing the produce.
Apply effective post–training follow-up support services for farmers.
Capture relevant data from agricultural enterprises operated by the academy’s graduates and/or farmers involved in other Buhle Farmers’ Academy projects.
Carry all responsibility of the academy’s scope of activities and contribute towards successful support of emerging farmers.
Develop business plans and seasonal marketlinked production plans for project farmers.
Monitor all productions and outputs in quantity and quality at all farms.
Research farmer training needs, to align with new age and climate smart approaches.
Establish and retain good relations with all farmers supported by the academy as well as stake holders of the academy in order to encourage good standings between BFA and all role players
Initiate new projects and recruit individuals for Buhle’s farmer support and training programmes
Create profiles to show case farmer success stories

Qualification and experience Requirements

3 years’ Experience in Farmer Support or market-link environment;
Proven experience in linking farmers to markets;
A technical background in agriculture is essential;
Degree or Diploma in Agriculture (Preferably Plant Production)
Experience with online markets;
Must have advanced problem solving skills team player and independent thinker;
Must reside in Venda;
Fluent in speaking Venda and business English;
Drivers licence with experience in driving in rural terrain;
Ability to work in a team as a good communicator and learner;
Own car will be an added advantage.

Required Skills

Project Management Skills
Report Writing skills
Business Plan writing skills.
Planning and Coordination
Knowledge of direct marketing
Ability to build trust relationships, loyalty and satisfaction.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
Ability to meet deadlines in a goal-oriented environment.
Problem solving skills.
Negotiation skills
Trustworthiness when working on their own.

Email: careers@buhle.org.za Closing Date: 29 January2021

Only shortlisted applicants will receive further correspondence. If you have not received a response within 2 weeks of submitting your application, please regard your application as unsuccessful.

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