Nonhlanhla Gumede-Shabalala strives to be the best she can be on her own 170-hectare sugar cane farm, Uthandimvelo, situated in the Stanger area. Gumede-Shabalala says she is not looking back at all after she decided to leave the banking sector and join her father on his farm a few years ago. She later managed to buy her own farm. OFM News' Christal-Lize Muller spoke to this dedicated young farmer as part of OFM's focus on females in agriculture during August, which is Women's Month...

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Gumede-Shabalala is a sugar and vegetable farmer in her own right. Although her parents have been in farming for 30 years she decided to study financial accounting after matriculating in 2002. After completing her three-year diploma she was employed in the banking sector. It was during that time that she decided the financial industry is not for her and she joined her father in 2010 on his farm. She assisted him with the administration tasks. She says that is when she grew the passion to farm herself and now she is not looking back at all. "I just decided this is me."

Gumede-Shabalala then started to register for agricultural courses in sugar cane farming. She also broadened her horizon in vegetable farming and animal breeding. She bought her farm through the Land Bank and had to replant the whole farm because it was just grass veld.  Gumede-Shabalala had to get funding to plant the farm, but couldn't get funding in 2017 and once again she had to turn to the Land Bank for a loan to replant her farm with sugar cane.

This young dynamic farm owner says government only intervened last year with R1,5 million which was used to buy a cane loader for her farm to harvest the cane. At this stage, Gumede-Shabalala employs ten permanent staff members, but about 40 seasonal workers are needed each year in September when it is planting time. She says because the farm was not fully planted she had to plant 20 hectares sugar cane each year.  Gumede-Shabalala says she is not afraid to work hard and runs the shown on her farm even though she employed a supervisor. She also stays on her farm and her produce goes to Tongaat Huletts. 

Another proud moment was when she was chosen to run the Tongaat Hulett's Uzinzo Sugar Farming programme last year. Gumede-Shabalala is the only young female farmer which, together with three men, runs this programme on a 3 900 hectare farm.

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