The Mphithini Co-operative based near Donnybrook, is an enthusiastic group of farmers with whom we have been working since November 2019.

We are ecstatic to announce that we have been awarded section 18A tax income exemption which means that from this point onward, all donations made to our organisation are fully tax deductible!

Following the appearance of our article in local news about the efforts of the commercial farmers in our district to get food to the vulnerable during lockdown, we were invited to be interviewed by Joanne Joseph on Radio 702’s afternoon drive earlier this week.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought enormous challenges for people across our country and the world over, but even more so for the unemployed who, under lockdown, have been unable to undertake the piecemeal jobs they require in order to put food on their tables and the elderly and frail who take great risk venturing out of their homes to collect their social grants in order to purchase food.

Mr Gehla Mngoma and his family continue to produce a brilliant crop of cabbages, potatoes and tomatoes but since the loan period ended for the demo tractors that Mascor provided, a replacement has been greatly needed.

Subsequent to a proposal put together by Mr Stapylton-Smith in consultation with Mr Ngcobo, the Agri-business Development Agency have funded a new 20-point swing-over dairy at Summerhill Farm which has been operational since the beginning of March.

HGA has sought to arrange extra learning opportunities for the students involved in their in-service training programme and in February hosted an orientation event where guest speakers, Dr Tod Collins and Mr Walter Blore were invited to share their wisdom and experience from their respective professions in the agricultural sector.

The Strachan’s food security project continues to expand and now involves two sites in the Umzimkhulu area, namely, Waschbank and Highlands. HGA, through Standard Bank funding, was able to provide with the basic tools to households who have recently joined the project in order for them to begin cultivation of their home gardens.

The Reynolds family from Olivar Farm between Ixopo and Umzimkhulu are on a mission to improve the lives of those around them through education and skills transfer. In June 2016, after undertaking the required training, Sarah Reynolds began teaching English to their staff and their families through the Gateway into Reading programme.

With the help of Standard Bank funding we were able to provide fencing to the 17 households that are members of the One Home One Garden project in Hlutankungu, near Highflats. We celebrated with its members at their Harvest Day Event in December where members were able to showcase some of their produce. Thanks go to Mr. James Crawford who sits on the Build It Executive, for offering us a discount on the fencing purchased through their branch in Pinetown.

We would like to thank Novus Print for generously printing 150 copies of our latest annual report. This offered a substantial saving to our organisation and the provision of a really important resource which we will be using to spread the word about our initiative to current and prospective funders and other stakeholders.

The Humansdorp Co-op, trading as The Co-op, have partnered with HGA and will be making a monthly sponsorship of R5000 for six months to our organisation. The Co-op is a leading agricultural business operating predominantly in the Eastern Cape but is in the process of expanding into other parts of South Africa.

We are very grateful to Link Seed who in October 2019 invested R90 000 in HGA. Link Seed is a member of the Limagrain Group and recently we had the privilege of taking their representatives to see a few of our projects. In attendance were Mr Frederic Savin, the CEO of Limagrain Africa, Ms Margot Andrieu, Limagrain’s Quality Assurance Manager and Mr Des Cuff COO of Link Seed. Journalists from Ilanga Newspaper also attended and this resulted in HGA featuring on the front page of the paper.

The selection process for the second round of student placements has been completed and involved an initial screening of 140 CVs, following which 50 students were interviewed and undertook a maths literacy test. The interviews took place over three days and we are grateful to HGA director and psychologist, Mrs Leigh-Anne Hauff for giving of her time to be involved in the process.

The in-service training programme has been in a busy season with HGA assisting the students with the submission of their National Diploma applications and then finalising plans for the selection procedure for the next in-take of students.

We wish to thank Sutherland Seedlings for their generous donation of 20 000 cabbage seedlings which we were able to distribute to various projects. The One Home One Garden Project in Hlutankungu received 10 000, Mr Roy Dandala facilitated the distribution of 3000 to the Madzikane Co-op in Riverside whom he assists and 7000 went to Mr Stembiso Khumalo and his family who farm in the Mazabakweni area near Highflats.

A field trip to Scientific Roets near Kokstad was arranged for our students based on farms in that area. Scientific Roets is a business incubator for young entrepreneurs in the agri-business sector and therefore a great place for our students to be inspired and get a sense of the range of career paths that exist in the agricultural space.