New Commercial Farmer Invests In Asparagus

Up-and-coming commercial farmer Daniel Maqala is diversifying further by investing in asparagus. Sabrina Dean visited him to find out more about his journey so far.

- Sabrina Dean

It’s a bright, clear winter’s day at Daniel Maqala’s farm in Rosendal in the eastern Free State. When we arrive, his wife, Dineo, is sitting in the sun outside the shed, sifting through a hail damaged sugar bean harvest. She’s looking for beans that will still make the grade for delivery on a contract Maqala has with the World Food Programme.

This has not been an easy production season. However, through mentorship by various role players, a by-the-book approach and a willingness to put in the necessary hard work, this up-and-coming commercial grain farmer is still on track for a good yield.

The son of a farm worker in Ficksburg, Maqala remembers how, after school, he would sneak off to the lands to ride on the tractor with his father.

He left school at 15 years old to work on the farm after his father died, but soon left for Johannesburg, where he spent years as a truck driver for Bakers. “I can still smell the biscuits,” he recalls.

His next foray into agriculture was when he bought an old Bedford truck to sell cabbages.

He then ran his own general dealer business in QwaQwa in the eastern Free State for years before selling the shop to venture into the taxi business in the early 1990s.

Around 2000, Maqala felt the need for a change and started his first livestock venture with 60 cattle run on land leased from the municipality. He also applied for land through government’s Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy and in 2005 was granted a 30-year tenure for the 326ha farm Die Hoop in the Rosendal area.

He later approached the Land Bank for a loan, which he used in 2010 to buy his own land: the adjoining 197ha farm, Kosmos.

In addition, he has leased more lands to bring the total area on which he runs his mixed cropping and livestock operation to about 700ha.