good harvest for cotton farmers
Cotton farmers celebrate a good harvest after much hard work and efforts put in production.

MANGWENI – This year has turned out to be a successful one for cotton farmers situated in the Nkomazi Local Municipality.
This has been a result of countless efforts that were put in place to boost cotton production and this came as no surprise to the hard-working individuals.
Although the farmers were growing cotton under a perilous and stressful conditions, their hard work and dedication were not in vain as their produce was excellent.
This year the self-employed, and one of the many farmers, Ms Lomayanga Daisy Ngwenya exceeded expectations and produced more than se needed. She was endorsed as one of the highest growers by Laskop Gin upon receiving her cotton bales.
This year alone, she was able to produce 93 bales against all odds, leaving her fellow farmers at Khombaso Cotton Depot amazed.
The hard-working, remarkable and multitalented 59-year-old Ngwenya was ploughing and planting cotton on an eight hectare piece of land at Mfumfane B.
Last year she only managed to take home 34 bales, but less than the previous year in which she was the best producer with 40.
A great achiever who has created 10 job opportunities for the locals, she started farming in 1990. She had been selling old mangoes to Cape Fruit in Malalane for juice production
“I was told that I was the best and the highest cotton producer with a good quality cotton, making 24,6 tons and one cotton bale producing 422,5 kilograms. But I don’t know how I did it this year. I believe it was God’s intervention and hard work pays,” said the dedicated Ngwenya.
Her secret for success was hard work and her passion for cotton, and that has sustained her throughout the years.
As the country celebrates Women’s Month, she would like to encourage other women not to be afraid to invest money on cotton production because that money if it was well spent, it would eventually create a lot more funds and more opportunities for the project.
She highlighted that although they were producing cotton under a hazardous environment, it is no longer the case because the current government was doing all it could to support farmers unlike in the past, where they were not receiving full support.
All her spare rooms and garage were filled with cotton. She indicated that their challenges as cotton farmers was storage, water, fencing, transportation and a cotton processing machine.
The chairperson of Nkomazi Secondary Cotton Cooperative, Mr Robert Nkalanga, congratulated the cotton farmers for their hard work and commitment in obtaining a great harvest this year.
He further emphasized that he was proud of cotton farmers although they were operating under dangerous conditions, but they were still able to accomplish the best. He reported that a farmer lost her cotton when one of her rooms filled with cotton, caught fire, but no one was injured.
In addition, he further mentioned that as cotton farmers were hoping that this year would arrive at 4 000 cotton bales sent to Loskop Gin. Last year, they were able to send about 2 740 bales.
He said Chief Mlambo had given five hectares for cotton farmers to store their bales, as they were struggling with a storage site.
The director for Ehlanzeni District, Dardla, Mr OB Magagula had given the a thumbs up for a job well done by cotton farmers. He said they had put up a great yield this year.
He added that his department was committed in supporting all commodities, but as farmers they should be organised and encouraged them to establish a cooperative so that they would be able to speak as one voice.