Diversification Success For Eastern Cape Farmer

Former extension officer, Sithembele Malgas, started farming in the Idutywa area of the former Transkei in 1990. Today, he produces cabbages, spinach and butternut in rotation on 3,5ha under irrigation and farms more than 500 beef cows near Cathcart in the Eastern Cape. Mike Burgess reports.

- Mike Burgess

Sithembele Malgas always knew that he wanted to pursue a career in agriculture. While many of his friends left for the bright lights of the cities after school, Sithembele immediately began his studies for a diploma in agriculture.

Today, Sithembele is a successful vegetable and cattle farmer near Idutywa and Cathcart in the Eastern Cape. He has steadily applied and improved upon his theoretical knowledge, which has enabled him to finetune production techniques in both these enterprises.

Sithembele was born in the communal area of Swartwater near Lady Frere in the former Transkei, where, like many boys of his generation, he tended the family’s livestock in his spare time. After completing his diploma in agriculture at the Tsolo Agricultural College in the former Transkei, he joined the extension services of the then Transkei Department of Agriculture and spent several years in the communal areas surrounding Matatiele. He used this opportunity to attend as many courses on agricultural production as possible.

In 1989, he was posted to Idutywa, where he set out to train farmers to grow out day-old chicks. But his efforts proved unsuccessful.

“I tried to persuade [the community] to buy chicks and grow them out, but [most of them] gradually failed,’’ he recalls. “They didn’t see agriculture as a commercial field.’’