… can house 24 000 seedlings
BY DELISA THWALA
SIGANGENI – About 81 women farmers of Sigcineni will now produce their own seedlings in a greenhouse constructed by MTN staff.
The company also purchased building materials worth E100 000 as a contribution towards Phikelelani Bomake Association.
The piece of land located opposite Sigangeni High School was a hype of activity when over 150 MTN staff members teamed up with staff from one of the partners, Imbita for the manual work.
This involved erecting a fence around the 100 by 30-metre piece of land and digging up a foundation for the 40 by 10-metre nursery house.
The women each have one hectare of land on which they are growing various crops for commercial purposes at their homes.
The nursery was necessitated by the shortage of seedlings from known suppliers as each time they wanted to purchase in bulk they were told first preference was usually given to old customers.
Mahlangatsha-based Extension Officer Mandla Mamba said they will be able to grow 24 000 seedlings per cycle of six to eight weeks.
“The women really needed this to practice climate-smart farming. This nursery will help in fighting the unpredictable weather patterns,” he said.
He said this is a multipurpose greenhouse in which they will also grow climate-sensitive vegetables like green pepper and tomatoes.
The Chairperson of the association Fikile Dladla said they were very grateful for MTN’s contribution.
“We have been struggling to build a greenhouse since 2017 when we started farming. This dream would not have come true had it not been for MTN,” said Dladla.
Imbita Director Sibongile Shongwe said, “We are working with over 400 women’s associations countrywide and Phikelelani Bomake is one of them. We train and capacitate women who want to use their savings to establish income-generating projects.”
Shongwe said Imbita was all about women’s empowerment for sustainable development, hence they followed up on projects to make sure they are sustained.
Leading his team in the manual work, MTN CEO Wandile Mtshali said they were thankful to their partners who made this dream come true.
He said MTN was doing this as part of its 21 Days of Yello Care Campaign activities under the theme Empowering Entrepreneurship to Unlock Growth and Job Creation. The company is in the third week of the campaign that was launched on June 1, 2023. The programmes that were lined up for this year’s campaign are waste monetization, youth empowerment through business skills and seed capital, capacitating women in agriculture and vending businesses and furnishing Ekululameni school.
