Hunger and cancer pushed Nonhlanhla Joye towards farming

Nonhlanhla Joye still remembers being without food and being diagnosed with cancer in 2014. That unfortunate circumstance prompted her to look at agriculture as a means to feed her child and herself.

Joye needed healthy food to be able to cope with the disease. Her early attempts which involved planting seedlings in her yard at a township in Durban did not work out, because the neighbours’ chickens reduced the vegetable patch to nothing.

It was a setback that taught her the importance of being able to adapt and also deepened her love for agriculture. She grew the vegetables using plastic containers and sacks as a form of protection against the chickens, thus ensuring that she and her son enjoyed freshly picked vegetables.

Today, Joye runs a successful farming operation called Umgibe Farming Organics in Wartburg outside Pietermaritzburg. Umgibe also provides training to aspiring farmers, mainly from the rural areas.

The move to provide training was born out of a realisation that imparting such knowledge and skills would help reduce hunger, and that has been the driving philosophy for Umgibe Farming Organics and Training Institute.

A number of small cooperatives have benefited and emerged with agricultural training and business management skills; they work together to supply large quantities of fresh produce to a range of clients.

Joye loves farming and boasts about being among the first people to post on Facebook about farming, when it was not fashionable.

She said that farming required dedication and hard work.

“I have found strength in prayer so that even when I suffered damages of around R3 million from the floods in 2022, that did not deter me from continuing with what I do. Farming is a field that is not for the faint-hearted,” she said.

The farm offers a wide range of vegetables and processed foods and during the Covid19 lockdown, Joye she was able to supply a number of big brand supermarkets, something that speaks volumes about someone who once found herself in a RDP house with nothing to eat and the prospect of dying from cancer.

Her greatest joy is knowing that her efforts helped to restore dignity, and empower women. “I love seeing another individual succeed, and that has got to do with the fact that we grew up under very difficult circumstances. I am an organic farmer and I believe in doing things collectively as a mechanism that can take us far. As individuals we are drops but collectively we are an ocean.”

Joye’s exploits have not gone unnoticed and she has been nominated for two continental awards that will be given at a ceremony in Accra, Ghana, next month.