Nonhlanhla Gumede-Shabalala, is a true inspiration to many young women in South Africa who wants to make a living in the farming industry. She says it is all about focus and determination. Women who want to enter the industry must believe in themselves and work hard. Gumede-Shabalala bought her own farm,  Uthandimvelo, near Stanger in 2017 after she decided to leave the banking sector and join her father on his farm a few years before that. Today Gumede-Shabalala has her own 170 hectare sugar cane farm. OFM News' Christal-Lize Muller spoke to her as part of OFM's focus on females in agriculture during Woman's Month...

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Gumede-Shabalala's advice to other women is even if they don't start with sugar cane, can they start on a small plot planting vegetables and supply their produce to local markets. She says farming is the life, and the future.  Her vegetables, which include, among others, cabbages, butternut and onions, are her cash crop and when the sugar cane season closes in December each year she harvests her vegetables and supply it to surrounding markets. She also provides vegetables to a local feeding programme at schools. 

Advice to other women

She says young females who want to enter the industry must start by searching for farms that are for sale. They can apply for grants and receive assistance from the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform, and Rural Development - support that she didn't receive when she bought her farm in 2017 by obtaining a Land Bank loan. 

If that is not possible women can start small, like planting vegetables on a small plot. Hard work is needed and women must be prepared that a dedicated farmer does not wake up at 08:00 daily. Start small and work hard, despite the existing challenges.

The future 

Gumede-Shabalala says in the next two years she wants to produce 7000 tons of sugar cane on her farm and also continue to feed all communities in KwaZulu-Natal with her vegetables on an even greater scale. She also wants to purchase another farm after three years. 

She says her parents have been in farming for 30 years but after school, she decided to study financial accounting and after completing her three-year diploma she was employed in the banking sector. It was during that time she decided this industry is not for her. She joined her father in 2010 on his farm and assisted him with the administration of his farm. That is when she grew the passion to farm herself.

She registered for agricultural courses in sugar cane farming among others and after she bought her farm, she had to obtain equipment and had to turn to the Land Bank again for a loan.

She is also part of the Tongaat Hulett's Uzinzo Sugar Farming programme which makes her the only young female farmer who runs the programme together with three men on a 3 900 hectare farm.

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