Busisiwe Mgangxela from East London

Tell us a little about yourself!

I was born in East London in the Eastern Cape, grew  up in both rural areas in King Williams's town (Peelton) and Mdantsane. I went to Mzomhle High School where I passed my matric. Trained as a nurse at Cecilia Makiwane Hospital. Graduated with UNISA as a Nurse Educator having majored in Nursing Education and Nursing Administration 

I stayed in Mthatha for 14 years as a Health Professional, Professional nurse, midwife, orthopaedic nurse and nurse educator for student nurses of the 4year diploma in nursing. I went to Saudi Arabia as a nurse in charge of an orthopaedic surgical ward for 2 years. Then I came back and stayed in Port Elizabeth where I started my own business and later left to farming in Middledrift. This is where I was introduced to Agroecology in 2014. While farming in Middledrift, we were advised to apply for land access at the department of rural development and land reform(Drdlr) to farm at scale because we were just farming on a small piece of land.

In 2020, I began farming in East London, where I live full time at Hillview farm on 48 hectares as a beneficiary of land reform with a 30 year lease.

How did you start doing what you are doing now? 

I was trained in Agroecology in 2014 and I am now farming using that training. I have an agroforest that I’m planning to expand and scale up to 6 hectares. I follow the principles of sustainable farming, soil fertility management, efficient water use and conservation, biodiversity to maintain a balanced agriculture ecosystem.

What are you most proud of in this process? 

I take pride in knowing and realising my efforts are now are working towards Nature and making sure food production land is sustainably intensified. As population increases, agricultural land is not increasing. It’s diminishing due to land degradation and misuse of arable land for other activities like mining and development.

What is the most helpful piece of advice you received when you were just starting out? 

Take care of Nature for it will take care of me no matter how big I want to farm.

What advice would you like to give to others who are younger/earlier on their journey? 

I would advise youth and those new to agroecology, to by all means possible reduce and eliminate the use of external inputs like synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and genetically modified seeds.

These are typically expensive and therefore increase costs of production, resulting in less or no profits. They contribute to loss of diversity, soil degradation, water pollution and nutrient losses.

Where do you see growing going in South Africa? 

If the industrial way keeps gaining momentum, I see food and farming getting more expensive, due to need to use more fertiliser as soil degradation continues. I fear a bleak future for generations to come, with malnutrition and problems of stunting.

If South Africa considers a just transition to sustainable food systems, there will be no hunger, no poverty, no malnutrition, there will be land restoration, increased biodiversity, climate change will be properly mitigated and farmers would adapt to climate due to being resilient. Soils will sustain and yields will be high, leading to employment, nutrition security, increased livelihoods and increased GDP. There can be a social just South Africa