Born and raised in Enkantolo under the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Local Municipality, Athayanda Mdanyana and Zikhona Bhantshi have taken the initiative to start their own farming business. They own a 6.2-hectare farm that is fully fenced, where they cultivate a variety of vegetables, including spinach, cabbage, sugar beans, and butternut.
After completing farm management courses, Athayanda and Zikhona decided to put their knowledge into practice by starting their own business. Faced with the reality of scarce job opportunities, they chose to venture into agriculture, a field that aligns perfectly with their education. Zikhona shared that they saw an opportunity to create more job opportunities. They registered their company in 2020 and started using it in 2021. That’s when they applied for funding at NYDA, and it was approved. They were funded by NYDA for irrigation and by Agropark for fencing and inputs.
She explained that they started their business out of their own pockets, using their savings from stipends they received during in-service training. “We started with just one hectare, using our stipends to fence the land,” she said. Initially, they started with crops that didn’t need irrigation, such as potatoes. For crops that required irrigation, like spinach and cabbage, they used their own garden at home. She acknowledged that it wasn’t easy at the beginning, and they didn’t have any financial support or funding. “But that did not turn us down, we were determined that we will use what we have from our own pockets because we knew our goal,” she explained.
Offering advice to young people who want to venture into agriculture, she emphasized that farming is for everyone, regardless of age or education level. “Start with what you have, start from your own place, and the rest will follow,” she said. She encouraged young people not to be discouraged by the idea that farming requires large tracts of land or significant capital, but rather to take the first step with the resources they have.
