Avocado farmers prove the value of ridging

Limpopo farmers Kosie and Manie Eloff, faced with the need to re-establish their avocado orchards, decided to conduct a multiyear experiment comparing the yields of trees planted on ridged and level soil surfaces. They discussed their methods and results with Lindi Botha.

- Lindi Botha.

There can be few avocado producers who have been forced to re-establish their orchards on two separate occasions. Kosie Eloff and his son Manie in Limpopo are among them. But rather than merely repeating the exercise, they used it as an opportunity to introduce ridging in some of their orchards and compare the results with non-ridged orchards.

The story begins in 1976, when Kosie’s family were forced to sell part of their avocado farm, Welgevonden, near Morebeng (then Soekmekaar) to government, as it fell under a proposed homeland. In 1991, government gave the Eloffs the option of buying back the land.

Kosie jumped at the opportunity, but then faced the reality of having to re-establish his avocado orchards on this land. No cultivation had taken place in the meantime, and the orchards had become overgrown by black wattle and Lantana.

“It was a huge task, so I needed to borrow money, and I decided to go big. If I was going to go bankrupt, it might as well be for a large amount,” laughs Kosie.

The commercial banks, however, didn’t share his appetite for risk, and not one was willing to grant financing. Eventually, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) agreed to grant him a loan, which he used to establish 90ha of avocados within a year. “By grace, I didn’t go bankrupt and could continue successfully with the avocados,” recalls Kosie. “But then, in 2009, the farm was hit by a hailstorm, and my son Manie and I were unable to harvest a single avocado from 20 000 of the worst-affected trees. Fortunately, the [IDC] was patient, and we managed to re-establish these orchards, too. Today, we have 300ha under avocado trees.”

SOIL PREPARATION