20 August 2007
MEC for Agriculture, Dikeledi Magadzi declared Ditubatse Business Enterprise
the overall winner at the annual provincial Female Farmer of the Year Awards.
This happened at the gala dinner held to honour female farmers for their
contribution in the agriculture sector on Saturday, 17 August 2007 at Bolivia
Lodge in Polokwane.
The enterprise is a partnership comprising two women graduates, Makgoro
Mannya and Kgwadu Ramokgopa of the Greater Tzaneen municipality, Mopani
District. They started their business by producing homemade atchaar and the
business expanded to such an extent that more mangoes were needed. In order to
meet the demand, they decided to buy a farm that was already producing mangoes.
They received a loan from the Landbank with which they bought a farm of 440
hectares of land with mangoes, litchis, avocados and guavas.
The Department of Agriculture assisted them in installing an irrigation
system and now the farm has 18 earth dams which serve as water reservoirs. The
enterprise exports their products to Botswana and Europe. With the added value
chain of producing atchaar in the newly built factory, they are expecting to
increase their turnover at the end of the current financial year. The
enterprise has created 86 permanent and 40 seasonal jobs.
Earlier at the dinner, Ditubatse Business Enterprise was awarded for being
the winner in the category of top producer for the export market with Selina
Ndou, a farmer from Vhembe District being a runner-up winner. In the category
of top producer for the national market, Esme Read of Waterberg District walked
away with the first prize. Sekhukhune District's Rekgonne Agricultural
Co-operative and Maswanganyi Hlekula of Vhembe District were 1st and 2nd
runners-up respectively.
Ipopeng Fishery Co-operative from Capricorn District won in the Top producer
for Informal Market category with Sekhukhune District's Lizette Coetzee being a
1st runner-up and R M Vegetable and Fruit Enterprise from Waterberg District
being the 2nd runner-up.
In the last category of top producer for household use, Takalani Musetho
from Vhembe District received the first prize while Paulina Kekana of Capricorn
District and Anna Kgokane of Mopani District were awarded for being 1st and 2nd
runner-ups, respectively. Winners received R50 000 per category and 1st and 2nd
runners-up received R 25 000 and R 15 000, respectively. Winners will represent
the province at the national award ceremony to be held in Mpumalanga province
on 31 August 2007.
For more information contact:
Segoati Mahlangu
Cell: 082 801 1736
Thembi Makhuvele
Cell: 082 803 5648
Issued by: Department of Agriculture, Limpopo Provincial Government
20 August 2007
Source: Limpopo Provincial Government (http://www.limpopo.gov.za)
