Hard work brings free- range success for farmer

When Einstein Sibanda came to South Africa 15 years ago, it was with the intention of working in a restaurant. Today, however, he has a flourishing farming business in the Western Cape that supplies restaurants and delicatessens with free-range eggs, broilers and pork. He spoke to Glenneis Kriel about his journey.

FAST FACTS

A strong network has helped open up great opportunities in agriculture for Einstein Sibanda.

He augments his chickens’ diets with vegetables and microgreens produced on the farm.

In 2020, after careful experimentation, he expanded production to include free- range pigs.

Einstein Sibanda typifies the spirit of the entrepreneur: combining luck, energy and grit, he has built a booming free-range farming operation on the edge of Simon’s Town in the Western Cape.

Sibanda, who is originally from Zimbabwe, came to South Africa in 2006 in search of greener pastures. “I joined a friend and fellow Zimbabwean in Fish Hoek to work in the restaurant industry, but that didn’t work out, so I decided to go into farming instead,” he recalls.

He crossed paths with UK-born Sam Adams who at the time ran a programme called Start Living Green, which focused on equipping smallholder farmers and urban migrants with the skills to farm more sustainably.

“Adams rekindled my love of farming. He also had a strong network with other non-profit organisations, which created an opportunity for me to do an agriculture and business training course at Living Hope in Kommetjie in 2011,” says Sibanda.

While on the course, which lasted for four years, he farmed earthworms and made worm tea (vermicompost), which he used to establish and maintain organic vegetable patches of up to 4m² in the gardens of a growing number of clients.