The emerging farmers of the Vhembe Cooperatives received seedlings from the Macadamia Enterprise at an event that was held at Mununzwu Newco farm in the Waterval area last Thursday.

The director of Munuzwu Newco farm, Mr Carl Henning, and his workers officially handed over seedlings to local emerging macadamia farmers from historically disadvantaged communities of the Vhembe district municipal area. The enterprise donated about 5 000 grafted trees to the farmers, who will now be able to use them to expand their farms and contribute to the economy meaningfully.

The enterprise, based to the east of Louis Trichardt, helps farmers with advice on how to expand their businesses and with macadamia farming in general. The farmers are members of the Vhembe Macadamia Farmer´s Cooperative, and its chairperson, Mr Nkhelebeni Nndwammbi, received the trees on behalf of the farmers.

According to the chairperson of the cooperative, Mr Nkhelebeni Nndwammbi, the project was established in October 2003. Nndwammbi, who was also honored with a certificate of excellence in farming, expressed his appreciation for the donation and the contribution of Mununzwu Newco in the uplifting of small emerging farmers.

The event was attended by the MEC for Agriculture in Limpopo, Ms Dikeledi Magadzi, who said that it was a good thing to see that commercial farmers and the Department of Agriculture were working together to address critical challenges hampering the growth of the emerging farming sector from emerging to commercial. "Today’s event supports the core developmental and transformation approach embraced by our department, that of creating partnerships between commercial farmers and emerging farmers. Commercial farmers must view mentoring as part of their social responsibility," said Magadzi.

The Vhembe District Municipality helped the initiative with a training of a board of directors to the value of R198 000-00 and subsidized the purchase of seedlings to the value of R250 000, as a gesture of support to the macadamia farmers.

It was also revealed that the Department of Agriculture had facilitated the training of 58 farmers, funded by the South African Pesticide Initiative Programme to the value of R450 000 in business skills, hygienic standards and other important aspects. The department has also trained 32 farmers on macadamia issues.