A former Keiskammahoek taxi driver’s vegetable farm has been given a shot in the arm.
Sihle Maseko, 29, received a new 75kw tractor, heavy disc and maize planter worth R977,000 from rural development & agrarian reform MEC Nonkqubela Pieters last week.
The Dispatch reported in January that Maseko, who worked as a taxi driver after graduating with an agricultural management degree from Nelson Mandela University, had started farming vegetables on his family’s land in Keiskammahoek after job rejection letters piled up.
Maseko, farms a 15ha piece of and, growing mealies, cabbages and butternut and other vegetables since he started his business in 2021.
He also employs 12 local people.
I do not know how to describe the feeling, but I am happy. It feels like a burden has been lifted off my shoulders
After the handing over of the tractor at his farm, Maseko, who started his business with R18,000 to his name, some of which he saved from his hustles, and about R8,000 borrowed from people in his life, said the tractor was the big boost he had been yearning for.
“It was the great assistance from the ECRDA [Eastern Cape Rural Development Agency] that led me into getting this tractor,” he said.
The agency connected me with the premier [Oscar] Mabuyane and Pieters. They responded to my cry speedily.
“I feel so grateful,” he said.
“I do not know how to describe the feeling, but I am happy.
“It feels like a burden has been lifted off my shoulders.”
The young farmer said it had always been his wish to have a tractor.
His market extends to districts such as Chris Hani and OR Tambo and he has regular buyers in Middledrift, Dikeni, Keiskammahoek, East London, Peddie and other areas in the Amathole district.
“Having this tractor definitely will grow my farming business,” he said.
“It will also help to speed up my production because now I won’t have to wait in the queue when it is time to do land preparations.
“During rainy days in the harvesting period it is very difficult for vehicles to enter the farm gate, so the tractor will also help when taking out the produce from the fields on rainy days.
“It will also create a job as I will hire a tractor operator.”
Pieters said Maseko was “one of the examples of young farmers in the province who used his education and knowledge gained from his family to start a vegetable production enterprise”.
“We built a R1.5m rural market centre here that has been upgraded from operating in a tent to enable local sales and a local economy in the Keiskamma Valley before other markets are supplied.”
Pieters said young people should think of ways they could develop themselves and their communities.
“Farming is something that is done here a lot and what we appreciate as the government is that it is young people who are at the forefront, it is women and men.
“In that way it is rare to find young people straying.”
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