Pretoria - Mirriam Nchoe from Phitshane, a village outside Mahikeng, started growing a few vegetables on a one-hectare plot in 2007.
After expanding the production area to five hectares, today she feeds the entire community with quality vegetables.
Nchoe, who lives in the Ngaka Modiri Molema District, says she took a stance to be a provider of nutritious food after realising that the rate of unemployment was high and the standard of living among her fellow villagers was low.
Without any formal training on vegetable production, Nchoe relied on the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Agricultural Extension Officers for guidance, and she says this helped her.
The identification of crops suitable for the soil type in her area was the first step performed by the department, and this paved the way for her to be amongst the best and well-known vegetable producers in the district. She produces cabbage, spinach, carrots, onions, beetroot, tomatoes, green pepper, chillies and sweet potatoes.
“While local communities and those from the neighbouring villages were initially my targeted market, I have managed to make a way into the retailers’ market, as I am now selling my produce at Mafikeng Spar and Boxer Supermarket.
“I am also a regular seller at the periodic Mahikeng Farmers’ Market, where I am able to establish contact with potential clients,” says Nchoe.
As a way of giving back to the community that supports her, Nchoe often donates vegetable packs to the local pre-school, where each child takes a pack home, at the pensions’ pay-point, and at the local clinic.
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has provided her with a water tank and a net fence to protect her crops from birds and bad weather. Key to her future plans is to have an irrigation system that will cover the whole garden and to employ more labourers, especially women and youth. She is currently working with two local women.
“As the world is commemorating October as Food Security month, it is through women such as Nchoe that the vision of increasing the understanding of problems and solutions in the drive to end hunger will be better achieved,” said the MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development in the North West, Desbo Mohono.
Mohono called on other women, youth and people with disabilities to also become part of the solution to end hunger and unemployment.
The national commemoration of the annual World Food Day will this year be hosted by the North West province on Wednesday, 16 October, at Mmabatho Stadium. – SAnews.gov.za
