On the 4th May 2011, a group of small cane growers in Swayimane, an area near Wartburg, each received their first payment for harvesting and selling their sugar cane to the nearby Noordsberg mill.

The KZN Midlands regional manager of the South African Canegrowers Association, Mr. Brian Pearce, had the pleasure of handing over the cheques to thirty-eight farmers.

Mr. Pearce said, “We are very proud that the growers have each established a high financial income for their harvest. This can continue to generate steady income if the growers are willing to continuously contribute the same amount of energy and determination to their next batch.”

Noordsberg Cane Growers Development Trust supported by Lima as implementation agents, obtained R5.5 million rands worth of funding for KZN in 2008, which allowed the launch for the Swayimane group farming project. Noordsberg Cane Growers Development Trust as well as SASSA helped the growers with initial loan funding access, approved via Nedbank, which ensured a structured financial system was put into place in order for this small scale business to grow.

Thokozani Buthelezi, an agricultural manager at Lima believes that, “the success of this initiative came from moving the focus away from assisting individual farmers to helping groups; this helped to overcome issues of farm size and overhead costs.”

Thokozani also added that the participants have clearly mastered the skills for growing sugar cane because out of the fifty-three hectares of cane planted at Okhasini area; forty-seven hectares have been harvested. The success of this project would not have been possible without the help of Musa Mdunge, an Agricultural Technician from the Department of Agriculture, who helped transfer farming skills to the growers at workshops hosted on a regular basis.

The participants were grateful to Noordsberg Cane Growers Development Trust, Lima, Gijima KZN, Nedbank, Department of Agriculture and SA Cane Growers for supporting them throughout the initiative. With the right amount of willpower, proper agriculture expertise and the helping hand of a few organisations, these participants may very well reap what they sew in the succeeding years to come.

Sugar cane farmers	Swayimane farming area
Thokozani Buthelezi with a farmer	Swayimane first payment