Emerging farmers and entrepreneurs came under one roof to showcase their produce and to expose themselves to the market at the OR Tambo Annual Farmers Information Day in Mthatha, Eastern Cape.

Food security and malnutrition remain huge challenges facing the rural communities in the province.

The statistics of malnourished children in the countryside continue to rise.

Subsistence farmers are motivated to produce food for consumption and commercial purposes.

Co-operative Director Vusumzi Mnyanga says, “We are farming in 20 hectares under irrigation and we are employing people, casual and permanent people who are benefiting from this project, even in Tsolo, our hawkers are benefiting, they buy fresh produce at the right time and the prices are normal are at the right standard. That is why we are here today (Friday) to support this market because it depends on us; if we are not here, this market will not survive. We are trying to block all these trucks coming from other provinces.”

Entrepreneur Lwando Mcotheli says, “What we are doing, we are producing the black wattle charcoal, it is invasive in our community, so what we are trying to do, we are trying to involve the local community by trying to create jobs for them and we manufacture it. We produce it and supply it to the whole of OR Tambo region and supply it to the Eastern Cape as a whole.”

Young people are encouraged to explore other means of making a living and contribute to the local economy.

Beads and crafter Nonkululeko Siteto says, “I am doing beads to create job opportunities, to skill the young girls because the main purpose is to promote self-reliance among the young people. I do a lot of work for the wedding ceremony and other cultural activities.”

Another Beads and Crafter Simamkele Sokhasi says, “The reason why I started this was because of a lack of employment, so because of high unemployment. So I was very passionate about handy work, so I had to find a way to make ends meet through handy work.”

Government says rural communities should stand up and produce more food for both consumption and commercial purposes.

OR Tambo District Mayor Mesuli Ngqondwana says, “We are saying we must enable our people to produce food firstly for their own consumption, but at the same time to make sure that they contest in the space of the market for job creation, but at the same time for sustainability and the fight against poverty.”