EThekwini Municipality to empower vegetable farmers

The eThekwini Municipality Agri-business division will enter into a non-financial Memorandum of Understanding with Bethel Estate for the implementation of the Tshalanathi Farmer Support programme, involving 45 vegetable farmers. 

The initiative is now scaling up to one hundred farmers, of which 45 are based in eThekwini. The eThekwini Economic Development and Planning Committee, in a report to council, stated that this would be over three years and that the committee would receive regular progress updates. 

The Sustainable Trade Initiative will fund the programme to empower small-scale farmers within the municipality through enhanced market access, capacity development and value chain integration. The division regarded Bethel Estate, situated in the south of KwaZulu-Natal, as a reputable agribusiness entity with a proven record in linking emerging farmers to major retail markets such as Freshmark. 

This collaboration leverages the Estate’s technical expertise and networks to expand market opportunities for emerging farmers while ensuring alignment with the City’s developmental mandate.

The committee stated that the Bethel Estate, through its Tshalanathi initiative, has demonstrated significant success in facilitating access to formal retail markets for eleven farmers who collectively achieved over R1 million in turnover within one year. 

"This collaboration presents an opportunity for the municipality to extend structured support, reduce market barriers and improve the competitiveness to local small-scale farmers through partnership-driven delivery," the committee stated. 

The emerging farmers in eThekwini face recurring challenges such as inadequate technical and business capacity; limited access to structured markets, and constrained access to inputs and finance. The limitation impedes productivity and job creation, perpetuating rural poverty. 

eThekwini Agri-business will undertake the following facilitative and liaison roles:

• market access facilitation: Provide Bethel Estate access to the eThekwini’s farmer database and support farmer recruitment.
• Provide co-ordination and liaison services: act as a central point of contact to ensure effective communication between the Tshalanathi initiative and participating farmers.
• Mobilise Resource: Facilitate access to funding through relevant government and departments and development financial institutions.

Benefits of the Partnership

According to the municipality this partnership offers substantial socio-economic and developmental benefits such as:

• Economic empowerment through the enhanced productivity and income generation for emerging farmers.
• Job creation that will be stimulated within the agribusiness value chain.
• Capacity enhancement by building entrepreneurial and operational competence amongst farmers.

zainul.dawood@inl.co.za