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An investment in rural Sorghum farming in KwaZulu-Natal by the Nhlangwini community in KwaZulu-Natal has changed how people view the new crop, created employment and brought new economic opportunity for over 150 people in the area.

The community’s first harvest in August yielded a total of 152 tonnes of Sorghum on 100 hectares (ha) of communal tribal land. The rest of the main 300ha communal land parcel is used for maize and beans. The sorghum farming initiative project, which was launched in 2018 for the community of Nhlagwini, comprises a total of 500 hectares reserved for Sorghum spread across several, larger land parcels in the region.

“Of the 150 members in the farm cooperative, 60 seasonal employees from the local community,” says Muzi Fodo, chairperson of the Nhlangwini Community Co-operative. “We reached our most important objective, which was to create meaningful employment and training so that long-term sustainability and technological advancement is driven from within, rather than through outside suppliers.”

At the beginning of the planting season in November last year, the initiative ran into some resistance from the community. Locals, already up-and-running with maize and bean farming, did not fully appreciate the rationale of planting sorghum as a substantial crop.

“People were initially apprehensive as this was not a familiar crop and had a limited perspective on the opportunities being created – that of being part of the supply chain for United Breweries, but we talked to them and made them understand the core mission and the value they could gain,” Fodo says. “We also had challenges with people cutting our fences to allow their cows to graze and had to fix them repeatedly throughout the season. Despite all this we managed to reach our goal to producing our first harvest and we are not looking back.

The Diageo Empowerment Trust, providing modern equipment, managed the planting of the sorghum fields and shared advanced farming methods to ensure maximum yields as community workers cultivated the crop through the season.

“The most exciting part of the project, in addition to bringing new economic activity to the area, was seeing more people being involved in farming than ever in the area,” Mafaya says. “The most exciting part is that young people are taking an interest, and not just the older people, as was the case previously.

“Modern farming methods are helping, and we expect to see yields increasing to 350 tonnes over 200ha in the next season starting in October or November of 2019,” concludes Fodo .

Issued by The Diageo Empowerment Trust