Emerging farmers and entrepreneurs gathered at the OR Tambo Annual Farmers Information Day in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, to display their products and connect with markets. The event highlights ongoing challenges with food security and malnutrition in rural areas. Participants shared stories of job creation and self-reliance amid rising malnourishment statistics.
The OR Tambo Annual Farmers Information Day took place in Mthatha on Friday, bringing together emerging farmers and entrepreneurs to showcase their produce and gain market exposure. Food security and malnutrition persist as major issues in the Eastern Cape's rural communities, with statistics showing a continued rise in malnourished children.
Subsistence farmers are increasingly motivated to grow food for both personal consumption and commercial sale. Vusumzi Mnyanga, director of a co-operative, explained their operations: “We are farming in 20 hectares under irrigation and we are employing people, casual and permanent people who are benefiting from this project, even in Tsolo, our hawkers are benefiting, they buy fresh produce at the right time and the prices are normal are at the right standard. That is why we are here today (Friday) to support this market because it depends on us; if we are not here, this market will not survive. We are trying to block all these trucks coming from other provinces.”
Entrepreneur Lwando Mcotheli described his initiative: “What we are doing, we are producing the black wattle charcoal, it is invasive in our community, so what we are trying to do, we are trying to involve the local community by trying to create jobs for them and we manufacture it. We produce it and supply it to the whole of OR Tambo region and supply it to the Eastern Cape as a whole.”
Young people are urged to pursue alternative livelihoods to boost the local economy. Beads and crafter Nonkululeko Siteto said: “I am doing beads to create job opportunities, to skill the young girls because the main purpose is to promote self-reliance among the young people. I do a lot of work for the wedding ceremony and other cultural activities.” Similarly, Simamkele Sokhasi noted: “The reason why I started this was because of a lack of employment, so because of high unemployment. So I was very passionate about handy work, so I had to find a way to make ends meet through handy work.”
The government encourages rural communities to increase food production for consumption and commerce. OR Tambo District Mayor Mesuli Ngqondwana stated: “We are saying we must enable our people to produce food firstly for their own consumption, but at the same time to make sure that they contest in the space of the market for job creation, but at the same time for sustainability and the fight against poverty.”