He was born into a family who were crop farmers, and was later inspired by his late grandfather, to begin his farming journey.

After obtaining a college diploma as well as completing financial administration courses, Marumoloe was employed at an agricultural business in the province, NWK, where the value of crop production in agriculture was reaffirmed during his interactions with other farmers.

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He approached the provincial Department of Agriculture which assisted him to obtain land in Sannieshof. He farms crops such as sunflowers, maize, small white beans as well as sugar beans.

Challenges

The availability of capital investments is marked by Marumoloe as one of the biggest challenges farmers face. He says this deters them from producing on a commercial scale.

Another challenge is climate. Drought and floods can have a detrimental impact on crop producers.

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“We have challenges with the insurance companies. Input insurance is not always readily available to any other farmer – white, black, young or old… and those are industrial challenges.”

“Technology is playing a very big role in the industry and I think I need to advance my production to be technologically advanced. It comes at a very, very high price. So, it bounces back to capital investments as one of our biggest challenges.”

Employment

Marumoloe employs about four permanent staff and between 70 to 100 seasonal workers.

“If I could, if I had the capital resources, I would probably invest in machinery. But due to the high request for capital, labour is still a soluble way to be able to stay in production.

“So, yes, indirectly we are giving back to our community and we’ve got no any other choice but to employ those numbers.”

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Encouragement
Marumoloe encourages young farmers to stay committed and focused while facing headwinds such as high input costs, and a lack of capital and weather-related issues. “We’ve got plenty of challenges on our table, but if you can tackle them one by one, eventually you’ll overcome them…

“Try and maintain your health as you always need that energy to be able to participate and to be able to strive for better at all times…”

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