Empowerment

From growing up in a small Northern Cape town to becoming a pioneering scientist, Dr Marinda Visser expanded her horizons to lead vital national research partnerships, championing biosecurity and mentoring agriculture’s next wave of leaders.

a farm with little more than a single rondavel on it. Today, that property has become Kilima Horned Heritage, a diversified enterprise built around wildlife, tourism and livestock. Henning Naudé spoke to her about building Kilima, learning about an unfamiliar industry, and finding her place as a woman in a traditionally male-dominated sector.

For Fruit South Africa CEO Fhumulani Ratshitanga, leadership isn’t about being the loudest voice in the room. It’s about listening carefully enough to bring different voices together. She spoke to Farmer’s Weekly about the experiences that’ve shaped her leadership, and why trust is the foundation of progress.

By placing training, mentorship, and practical skills at its core, the Mathuba Farming Academy in the village of Ha-Ravele, near Makhado in Limpopo, is equipping farmers to build productive, sustainable, and commercially viable enterprises.

In family farming businesses, the hardest decisions are often about people, not production. At Bergrivier Besproeiing’s ‘Passion for your Farming’ farmers’ day in Paarl, Western Cape, three established farming families shared what it takes to keep both the business and the relationships intact across generations.

At the Madibeng Agri Youth Day on 23 June in Brits, North West, young people were encouraged not to wait for access to land, funding, or government grants before entering the agriculture sector but to instead build their businesses step by step.

Four years after its launch, a R600 million fund born from a corporate acquisition is transforming the lives of black farmers across the Eastern and Northern Cape.

Village business units registered as commercial agricultural ventures are transforming Zimbabwe’s rural landscape, long associated with subsistence farming.

A group of Kenyan smallholder women farmers are transforming the country’s high-value coffee sector by pooling their resources.

The National School Nutrition Programme feeds more than nine million school children every day and remains one of South Africa’s most meaningful interventions for supporting learning and reducing hunger. But with strategic partnerships, the programme could do far more, strengthening childhood nutrition while helping to drive transformation across the agriculture sector.

A day in the life of rural veterinarian Dr Suenette Kotze reveals how South Africa’s food chain is supported by a small group of overworked professionals who balance animal welfare, farmer support, and personal sacrifice across vast farming landscapes.

For the past two decades, the Anna Foundation has been transforming the lives of rural children and their communities, growing from a single after-school centre into a network of programmes across the Western Cape.

In a time when youth entrepreneurship in South Africa continues to lag, small-scale farmer Siphindile Hlengwa, founder of Ndlovukazi Agricultural Multipurpose, has shown that structured business support can shift agricultural enterprises from simply surviving to becoming sustainable and even award-winning.

Beyond teaching agricultural skills to their own children, Zimbabwean farmers Vimbai Ruvengo and her husband, Mussolini Ganyo, have turned their property, Panganayi Farm on the Hwedza-Marondera boundary, into a haven for children eager to learn about farming.

Mkhululi Tjibenda and 49 other residents of Entumbane, a suburb of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, are engaged in urban farming on an approximately 1ha garden allocated to them by the local city council.

In food-insecure communities across South Africa, Shoprite and its partners are establishing food gardens that help people grow their own food and build long-term self-reliance.

Johan van der Nest is renowned in auction circles and was the first freelance stud-stock auctioneer to begin operating in South Africa. He spoke to Sabrina Dean about a career built on knowledge, experience, people skills and just a touch of showmanship.

In February 2024, the Hlokomela Junction Clinic in Letsitele, Limpopo, opened its doors to provide healthcare services to farmworkers in the area. Farmer’s Weekly visited the clinic to find out more.

This year marks the centenary of Pinotage. Beyers Truter, owner of Beyerskloof and chair of the Pinotage Association, spoke to Glenneis Kriel about his journey with the variety and its rise to international recognition.

Feeding a growing population while protecting natural resources demands innovative thinking and strong voices to move science out of research papers and into public discourse. Lindi Botha spoke to scientist Enrike Maree about making science part of the conversation.