Mogogakgomo vegetable project makes North West province proud again

North West’s young female agricultural entrepreneurs have put the province on the national map again. It is now official; Mogogakgomo Vegetable Project from Bojanala Platinum District is the country’s best subsistence producer. The Minister for Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ms Tina Joemat-Pettersson announced this on Saturday night, 28 August, during the National Female Entrepreneur of the Year Awards ceremony, which was held at Mentors Country Estate, Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape Province.

Competing for this honour with female owned vegetable projects from the country’s eight other provinces, this group of dedicated young females was announced as the best producers, and walked away with the price of R120 000.00 (One hundred and twenty thousand rand).

Mogogakgomo was one of the nine projects which were representing the North West province after being announced as winners in their respective categories during the provincial award ceremony which was held two weeks ago.

This group was during the same provincial event, again declared winners of the MEC’s Special Award for Young Aspirant Female Entrepreneur.

Expressing her excitement after this announcement, Ms Nelly Machakela who received the award on behalf of other project members, committed the project to ensuring that all prices won through this competition take the project to greater heights.

“It takes hard work, dedication, passion and patience to be where we are today, and if we managed to do it, so can any young farmer of this province,” she said.

In congratulating this group, MEC Boitumelo Tshwene said by winning the national award, they confirm that nothing is impossible, and that this is certainly the beginning of good things to come. Tshwene further said that the commitment shown by this group in finding solutions to youth unemployment and food security proves that as they outgrow their youth stage, they will be at the position where they will be feeding the entire nation.

“I commit my department to ensuring that projects like this one get the desired support as part of our responsibility to provide technical and advisory services to our clients. From the department and all the staff members, we would like to congratulate the Mogogakgomo Vegetable Project and wish them well in their future endeavours.”

From the provincial award ceremony, Mogogakgomo won R300 000.00 out of which, R60 000. 00 will be received in cash, whilst R250 000. 00 will be for developing the project’s infrastructure.

Mogogakgomo was born out of lack of employment for the 11 youth in 2006. Their passion for agriculture grew up over the years when they realised that they were able to make a living out of their business. They managed to get land where they started with 3 tunnels of tomato production. As they got motivated they tried other vegetables such as spinach and cabbage. They have now successfully obtained a contract to supply Spar in Hammanskraal and other vendors with their fresh vegetables.

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