Women reap the fruits of their own labour
Women from less privileged backgrounds are taking care of themselves by growing flowers and vegetables.
MBOMBELA – Women from rural areas and impoverished backgrounds can now celebrate freedom and independence, thanks to a flower, spice and vegetable farm, Timbali Technology Incubator.
Located near the Agricultural College, it employs mostly women from rural villages in the province to grow, care for and sell their own harvest of gerberas, lisianthus flowers, organic vegetables or herbs. The different sections are aptly named amaBlom, amaSpice and amaVeg.
Louise de Klerk started the farm in 2006 by growing only gerberas, but due to its success and the addition of vegetables and spices, it grew from a small patch with only 12 growers to a total of 172 employees.
Each woman receives her own 1 000m2 tunnel of produce which gets sold to a fresh produce market in Johannesburg every week. The organic vegetables and spices are sold to suppliers who stock Woolworths. After paying levies and commission to Timbali, the women take home their own profit.
“I am so grateful for the opportunities Timbali has given us and everything it has taught us.” Hilda Lubisi has been growing gerberas at Timbali for six years. Before she started here she was a housewife. “Now I make my own money and I can take care of myself and my children.”
Hilda is one of 60 on-site Timbali employees. According to Timbali’s business development officer Busi Mkhize, the other 112 are located on a farm in Limpopo. The flower farmers produce about 3 400 flowers per 1,5 km2.
“Anyone is welcome,” says Mkhize. “We don’t discriminate. All we need is your full-time commitment to the programme.”
In the middle of the farm is a pack house where the organic vegetables and spices are packaged according to strict specifications of Woolworths and all other retail shops they supply to. They produce among others, bringals, baby marrows, patty pans, leeks and baby cabbages. The spices include sweet basil and peppers.
Mkhize is positive that the future of Timbali holds only growth and success. “Who knows?” she laughs. “Maybe one day we’ll buy another farm and start amaCattle.”
