Small scale growers

There are 1243 small-scale cane growers (SSG), of which 81% are active, farming 10 036 hectares of irrigated cane in Nkomazi. Approximately one third of all growers are female. The SSG have the ability to produce approximately 400 000 tons of cane.

Each grower has an average 7.8 hectares of land under sugar cane.
The small-scale growers (SSGs) are a very important component of Tsb Sugar's overall cane supply to the mills. 1300 growers on 32 projects produce sugarcane on 10 000 ha of tribal land with an annual production of approximately 700 000 tons.
The annual gross turnover provides a significant financial boost to the Nkomazi area. It also provides very important job opportunities and the associated development of a range of business and farming skills.
It is certainly one of the few very successful black farmer developments in Southern Africa.

SSG Farmer Support

Tsb Sugar currently has a comprehensive SSG support service providing full time agronomic assistance via qualified extension officers to all growers. It also has a dedicated engineering department to facilitate the maintenance and repairs of irrigation pumps and infrastructure.

A support service is provided to all growers (small and medium scale emerging farmers as well as commercial farmers). The mill and the cane producer are mutually reliant on each other and the grower base is considered a critical aspect.

The purpose of the grower support services is to contribute to the maintenance of an independent and financially sustainable grower base. It is very important that our support services always recognize that the farmers are independent and the decision as well as responsibility lies with the farmer.

These support services entail several facets, including an extension service covering all agronomic aspects as well as field management advice and facilitation to all growers, both emerging and commercial.

The philosophy of the extension is to go beyond the traditional advice on technical aspects only by facilitating the entire production process to the final output. This is structured to suit the requirements of both the specific farmer grouping and that of the individual farmer.

For the emerging small and medium scale growers, a pump and irrigation infrastructure maintenance service is provided. This is on a voluntary basis and the growers carry the cost of material and consumables required in the preventive as well as breakdown maintenance. Knowledge and expertise is offered in the form of qualified maintenance and engineering personnel.

Evaluation of irrigation system designs as well as monitoring of critical points in the installation process is made available to both the emerging farmers as well as the financiers of these systems. This specific support service is aimed at protecting the farmer and the financier against exploitation that can have a very marked effect on the ability of the growers' projects to remain financially viable as well as on their ability to meet their repayments. The view is that financiers form an integral part of the cane producing process and therefore the provision of technical expertise plays a role in mitigating some of the risk involved, which is beneficial to both the financier and the grower.

Our own personnel are involved in servicing the training needs of the emerging farmers with tailor-made training courses. The farmers are further facilitated to be trained by other institutions, private and government, thus ensuring a wider range of training to meet various needs.

A book-keeping service is offered to the emerging farmers who have advanced to become medium-scale farmers. The growers are also mentored in financial management and in the making of important financial decisions.

Medium Scale Growers

In a bid to further develop the small-scale growers, in 2005, Tsb Sugar selected seven successful growers from the current small-scale growers, including one company employee, and gave them the opportunity to become medium-scale growers. Of these growers two are women and five are men. A selection committee selected them from more than a thousand applications. They all had a good track record in sugar cane production.

The successful candidates were:

Eric Sibiya, Lina Mabaso, Richard Nobela, Isaac Nkosi, Nellie Ngomane, Patsim Mbazima and Henry Magagula.

These growers started farming on 1 April 2005. The farm manager responsible for the development made time available in the two weeks prior to this for growers to work with him. This was done in order for them to become acquainted with the workings of the very complex irrigation systems.

The grower is fully and solely responsible for his own farming operations. Tsb Sugar and other role-players only offer extension services, advice, mentoring and guidance, but the ultimate decision-maker is the farmer.