Nufarmer November / December 2017 NUF NOV.DEC 17 | Page 4

Nufarmer Africa
SANELE MBHELE
ARC Farmer of the Year
Award winner
Close to Dundee, KwaZulu Natal, a
young farmer called Sanele Mbhele
operates in an area called De Jager
Street.
“I
am amazed that the ARC (Agricultural Research
Council) announced me as a ‘Successful farmer’.
The road to success is a long and tedious one in farming.
Nevertheless, I am delighted to have been acclaimed
as successful and would like to share my story,” Sanele
said. Where he comes from, where he is currently and
where he intends to go are the important elements of
this young farmer’s story.
Sanele refuses from being called ‘emerging.’ He
used the example of a seed which has the potential of
becoming a fruit.
He grew up in Bergville. He was sent by his father to
an agricultural boarding school at Ulundi – his father
has faith in the future of agriculture and wished his
sons to progress in agriculture with proper theoretical
and practical knowledge. Sanele was at boarding-
school for five years and then stayed at home for a year,
working on a farm. This he did from childhood and was
accustomed to working in the various facets of farming.
He then decided to do a diploma in plant production
at MUT (Mangasutho University of Technology) and
afterwards went to do in-service training with PPECB
and excelled so much that he was employed full-time
before he received his Diploma.
Sanele worked in Hoedspruit for six years as a quality
inspector until 2013. He then decided to part with an
office hour job to pursue farming – his inborn passion
through his grandfather. He used to be a truck driver
and saved all along to purchase his own farm – which
he did after twenty years of trucking. Having become
too old to be fully active on the farm, Sanele arrived at
the right time to assist managing the farm along with
his grandfather.
Sanele’s first challenge after stopping to work at
PPECB with a view of starting to farm was obtaining
capital. Breeding animals are expensive but the rewards
4
are plenty. He approached a number of banks with an
agricultural division, but without any luck. Although
his grandfather made money at auctions, he was not
financially administrative and lived off the cash he
made; therefore he had no track record at the bank or
from a bookkeeper.
He happened to read about NERPO and immediately
made contact. He applied for a loan under MAFISA and
was approved. Sanele bought his first own 22 animals.
The loan was to be paid bi-annually. He purchased
cows with calves in order to get a good head start from
Nufarmer Africa | November/December 2017