Meet – Sinethemba Masinga, South African born Farmer and CEO of Sinesthembiso Produce from Ndwedwe, KwaZulu-Natal.
Her farm produce includes eggplant, green peppers, green beans, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, maize, peanuts, yams, dry beans, butternuts, and pumpkins. Her latest product is the organic peanut butter called Farm Julia.
Even though she is the CEO of two farms, Sinethemba still loves getting her hands dirty. She makes sure she gets involved in the day-to-day manual labour of farming. “I’m a second-generation farmer, I have been involved in farming from a very young age, working closely with my parents.” “Our society sees farming as a career for old men. But farming is for EVERYONE and should not be associated with any gender. There are no limits to the positions women can fill in the agricultural sector. The sky is the limit; young people should go grab those opportunities, break the chains to motivate and create jobs for the generations to come.”
“My journey began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when I took over the family farming and formalized it into a small-scale farming business. After dropping my science degree because I did not have a passion for it, I needed to find innovative ways to help my family grow the farming business, not only for my family but also to serve my community. In farming I found a calling.”
It took patience, resilience, constant learning backed up by a network of experienced farmers for Sinethemba to be where she is today. At just 25 years old, she started farming at the age of 15. The Varulem Secondary School matriculant has more than 1.5 hectares of land where she farms vegetables and has employed five people. She currently supplies major supermarkets such as Pick n Pay, Boxer Supermarket and many others.
“My day starts very early at 5 am, prayer is very important for me. I do not move without prayer. Then I meet with the team for another prayer session before starting our duties for the day. My day usually ends at 6 pm, and I am the last to leave.”
“Some of the difficulties faced were watering without the irrigation system, and also having to fence the plants to protect against livestock.
I oversee the five farm workers that are currently working on the two pieces of land. If I’m not monitoring basic tasks like fencing, fetching water, and supervising harvesting, I also keep the records of the farms accurate and up-to-date. I handle our business account to manage all our monthly expenses and payrolls, and make sure the profits we make are used for emergencies or saving towards resources for labour on the farms.
In addition to that, I also have to meet with the PnP managers from time to time to discuss monthly produce if need be since we supply them with vegetables.”
She has a passion to equip other young people with farming skills, “I see a gap in schools where the curriculum does not include the food system, and so I decided to start a program where I teach little kids about the importance of farming. If we can find fun ways to capture their imagination about agriculture, we would raise interest in agriculture again. This is important for food security and nutrition. “
Sinethemba hosts kids who visit her farm on weekends to learn about agriculture, at the end of the program, kids go back home with freshly produced product from the farm. Through this program she has started visiting surrounding schools where she teaches farming skills and creates small gardens together with the learners.
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