…….ESWADE empowers Siphofaneni women start profitable agribusiness
By Mickie Langwenya
SIPHOFANENI – As we celebrate Women’s month, this publication bring you yet another fully functional, mind blowing company owned by women – Sesibonile Farmer Company.
This is a hundred percent female owned company that cultivates sugar cane at Siphofaneni under the Ngcamphalala constituency in the Lubombo region.
This is a LUSIP I farmer company with 17 shareholders (all female).
The company started operating in 2010 through the assistance of the Eswatini Water and Agriculture Development Enterprise (ESWADE) in both educating and funding.
The project started after the company was allocated a portion of land by the chieftaincy council.
Eswatini Positive News has established that the company sell an average of six tons of their produce annually to the Eswatini Sugar Association. The produce, however, depend on the size of the produce for that particular season.
It has been disclosed that ESWADE played a pivotal role in assisting the project get funding of E4 million.
The company currently has 80 hectares and has expanded into four phases.
In fact, Phase one covered 22.5 hectares of land.
This publication last week visited phase two of Sesibonile farming project whereby 60 per cent of the farm has been harvested and the harvesting is still going on.
This publication learnt that the company is in the process of completing its office construction.
Ms Tsabedze, Chairperson of the company, told this publication that an amount of E280 000 has been used for building a semi-finished construction that was, however, has stopped due to the current economic challenges caused by the pandemic on the market.
Sanele Matsenjwa, who is a supervisor, said he was grateful for the project and the shareholders are now able to provide their families.
