Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform (DRDAR) has officially launched the provincial grain planting season with a target to plant 27 774 hectares through the R93 million investment from the department.
The launch of the annual grain planting season was launched by Eastern Cape DRDAR MEC, Nonkqubela Pieters, at the Dalasile Agri Park near Ngcobo on October 19.
As part of this season’s grain production programme, DRDAR will plant grain on more than 2 000 hectares of land under the Dr AB Xuma Local Municipality, in partnership with the Dalasile Agri Park. Farmers participating in the programme produce yellow maize, white maize, oats, soya beans and sorghum.
DRDAR support to grain producers includes production inputs like seeds, chemicals, mechanisation units for cultivating the land, and commercial partnerships.
Nokwandisa Mdayi, an enterprising farmer from Nkondlo Village outside Ngcobo Town, is one of many farmers under the DRDAR-funded Dalasile Agri-Park.
She says her life changed from doing menial jobs, such as laundry for families in her community, to becoming a self-sustaining farmer when she joined this commercial grain production programme funded by the DRDAR through its multi-million-rand investment in the Dalasile Agri Park.
She added that the business does not only provide opportunities for its members, but also for other community members.
“During harvesting, I call women from the community to pick excess grain that is not picked up by the harvester. We pay them R120 a day,” she said.
Dalasile Agri Park chairperson, Yanga Dalasile, said that they have more than 15 off-take agreements which enable them to sell their produce at commercial markets.
“The one that has been the best is Bester which sold our Soya beans to China at R9 000 per ton,” said Dalasile.
Highlighting the positive impact of government investment in Nkondlo, Dalasile said that the area had been known as a crime hub where all forms of violence thrived, but now that bleak picture has been changed.
“We have received an investment of R16.3 million from government under the partnership model for the past three years, but the investment that we have received for these cropping fields in the past seven-year period amounts to more than R500 million,” he added.
Pieters said that one of the priorities of her department was the transformation of the grain value chain in the province, adding that DRDAR was investing money in black farmers to elevate them to a commercial level while ensuring food security for families.
