02 Dec 2018

Senela farm owner, Ms Neo Seate is determined to turn her 30 hectare farm into an agro tourism hub.

She said in an interview that she allocated four hectares to horticulture, 20 hectares to animal production and six hectares to dry land farming.

Ms Seate said Senela farm started operating in 2014 and was fenced through ISPAAD. She explained that she had a certificate in mushroom production and also enrolled in short and long courses to get enlightened on various farming methods.

She grows mushrooms, cabbages, tomatoes and potatoes. Since mushrooms need extra care, she plants them in the city while everything else is done at the farm.

Ms Seate has employed three people for her horticulture project and they help during harvesting.

She supplies Serinane Primary School and people within the community with vegetables.

Moreover, keeping cattle and goats helps her as they produce manure for plants.

After harvesting, she makes fodder from tomato trees while maize residue makes mushroom substrate.

She practices communal grazing for the cattle and goats and produces sour milk.

Ms Seate said she tries her best to produce quality products. Moreover, all her products are organic and she uses cats to chase predators away from cabbages instead of using baits. She said she would keep fish in future to regulate algae in water as she does not want to use chemicals.

She also keeps bees. The bees produce honey in December and June. However, she said her bee keeping project was not commercial.

“We aim to turn this place into an agro tourism entity. It will help us promote agriculture,” she said.

She explained that people would stay in the farm and that children would learn how to farm.

The other plan is to increase production of vegetables and expand infrastructure.

The other goal is to work with stakeholders in the value chain like chefs so that they could have constant supply.

However, the remote area has its shortcomings such as not having good access roads to the market.  

Currently, the gravel road they use makes access to the farm difficult.

The other challenge is poor soils that need improvement. In addition, there is no electricity which means she cannot have her own mushroom and potato house.

“I cannot deliver dirty potatoes to retailers so lack of electricity means I cannot have necessary machinery for potato production,” she said.

Her products are bought at a lower price below production costs.

She lamented that production costs were high while the market price was low.

The farm supplies major supermarkets such as Choppies and Shoprite.

Ms Seate also supplies primary schools with vegetables through the Economic Diversification Drive.ENDS