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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)