Local farmers speak out

Mandla Fundulile, an independent ploughing contractor from Gunge village about 17km from Mazeppa Bay, got his friends together for a heart-to-heart with Orrock Robertsen about agriculture in the former Transkei. The meeting was held at the house of Mxolsilise Dayimani, owner of 40 head of Nguni cattle, and joined by Robson Mvumbi and Mxolsilise’s wife Nonikile.
Issue date: 20 March 2009

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Mandla Fundulile, an independent ploughing contractor from Gunge village about 17km from Mazeppa Bay, got his friends together for a heart-to-heart with Orrock Robertsen about agriculture in the former Transkei. The meeting was held at the house of Mxolsilise Dayimani, owner of 40 head of Nguni cattle, and joined by Robson Mvumbi and Mxolsilise’s wife Nonikile.

Why is there so little agricultural development in the area, which clearly had plenty in the past?
Robson:
In the past we had structure. The tribal authority of a village received the tractors and implements, and decided when and where the equipment would work and how the project’s profits would be shared amongst community members. Its decisions weren’t questioned and we trusted they were made in the best interests of the community.
This tribal authority doesn’t exist in this form today and no longer has the authority to grant land for development. Nobody is in charge, nobody can make a decision, and that’s why I think there’s been this decline.
Mandla: The problem starts with the Department of Agriculture. It’s unwilling to help individuals get finance to start their own businesses. I’ve approached them several times for personal assistance, but they keep saying they only back community-driven projects, the project must be owned by the community and not by an individual.
I tried to get the community together to rally support for a project, but have found it impossible. Not all of us are farmers and interested in agriculture. It’s impossible to get someone to farm if they don’t want to, and most of our people don’t want to. Even when a project is started in a community, it receives no back-up monitoring, training or advice from the department on how to manage it.
One gets the feeling those employed by the department know very little about agriculture themselves. In this entire area we don’t even have an extension officer from the department. They donated a tractor for ploughing, but it serves the entire ward and has been out of service for the last two seasons.
The department always promises us projects, but to date nothing has occurred. I now boycott those meetings, as they’re a waste of my time and no issue is ever resolved.
Mxolsilise: Our children go to school and leave the area to chase a modern life, and they don’t know how to work cattle or plant cabbage. I’m too old to look after too many cows by myself. All of us who have cattle now have fewer than we used to.
Mandla: Infrastructure is also a big problem for agricultural development. One time I planted 10ha of cabbage that rotted on the land and was eventually eaten by livestock, because I couldn’t afford to hire a truck to take them to the market.

What do you think about the fact that commercial farms are being bought for land reform, and you’re receiving very little funding here to develop agriculture?
Mxolsilise: I feel shocked to hear this as we receive no assistance – we have no agricultural projects in this area. The closest one is just outside Butterworth, very far away.
Mandla: Land reform is alright, but there’s no sense in giving land to someone who doesn’t know how to farm, or to someone who can farm but lacks the capacity, without enough money to make the farm viable. This bought land should be monitored to make sure it’s producing to potential.

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There seems to be very little work in the area. How do people survive?
Robson: Social grants.
Nonikile: The people of today aren’t the same as they were. We no longer help each other out by, say, weeding land and trading produce. This life is finished – we now buy food in the shops. The new way is you go to school, then leave, and all that’s left of us are the very old and very young. We tend to our grandkids, who are sired in the locations by our children. They’re too young to plough and we’re too old.
The problem facing our people is a cultural one. Ubuntu no longer exists. This modern way has destroyed our culture, which in turn has destroyed our agriculture.

What are your thoughts on the future of agriculture?
Nonikile:
Nothing is going to happen with agriculture and the future generation is going to go hungry as it doesn’t know how to plant.     |fw