From the Editor
Editor’s message
Marvellous mushrooms
Award winners all-round
About SABI
Cape Town-headquartered SABI
(South African Irrigation Institute)
Carol Posthumus
e have an
edition jam-
W
packed with Award
winners this time
– from the SABI
annual Award and Medal
Winners (see page 5) to Mushroom Guru, second
place winner in the fourth season of Nisboere and
female social entrepreneur award winner Renshia
Manuel, of GrowBox who scooped a fabulous win
in the FAIRLADY Santam Entrepreneurial contests.
Also, we run the extremely
inspiring story of Jill Whyte,
chairperson, Green Farms
Nut Company (GFNC), famed
for macadamias, who won
the Mpumalanga Female
Exporter of the Year title and
is donating her R150 000
prize to boosting education
in agriculture.
We know you will enjoy
reading about the winners
featured: we congratulate
all of you high achievers and
thank you for sharing your
incredible stories with us.
We were so delighted to hear
that Renshia had won the
prestigious social entrepre-
neur award, as her GrowBox
helps people to start their own
vegetable gardens, and hers
is truly a great enterprise for
boosting food security in the
home and veggie garden busi-
nesses. We have been merrily
following her story since last
year, you will recall, and we
wish Renshia everything great
and good going forward.
Mushroom Guru, based in the
industrial arena of Strand in
the Western Cape, started in
business with just over R50 in
the bank, and has grown an
enterprise to be proud of –
playing a role in health, nutri-
tion and also assisting people
to introduce mushrooms into
their gardens, once again
for family nutrition and/or for
business. We spent some time
at their premises, and were
very inspired to grow our own
mushrooms, and to incorpo-
rate mushrooms into our own
nutrition and health regime.
Perhaps it is time to join the
many people who complete
courses with the Mushroom
Guru over the weekends!
It was a fascinating experi-
ence recently to attend SABI
Company Member Cherry
Irrigation’s Information Day
in Elgin in the Western Cape.
Charles Cherry hosted a super
event, packed with informative
presentations on irrigation
and technological solutions
ranging from digitised and
data in pumps and everything
solar - from Netafim’s Mark
Hill, Grundfos Africa’s Niren
Rohanlal and Jean-Roux Heyns
of Resurgence Technologies.
Vrye Weekblad editor Max du
Preez, a well-known journalist
and social commentator, took
to the stage to deliver some
thoughts on present-day South
Africa. He put a lot of perspec-
tive into the current scenario in
South Africa, encouraging the
audience not to subscribe to
illogical pessimism. After all,
South Africa has been through
really awful times before, and
has consistently managed to
endure and rise, he said.
He mused that one of his
friends who had emigrated
some years ago to Australia
recently commented – “the
grass may be greener here,
but it is artificial grass.”
Interesting thought to ponder
on, as of course many of us
have legions of friends who
have moved elsewhere in the
global village. The quintessen-
tial South African question of
current times may well be “is
the grass truly greener on the
other side?” And that of course
will get irrigation pundits
minds going into overdrive,
as that question, in a practical
sense, has many answers and
potential outcomes!
It was fascinating too to hear
the on-point questions from
the assembled audience of
mainly technical irrigation
and agricultural business folk
on the Zondo Commission.
South Africans, it must be said,
are highly politically informed,
and are, indeed, following the
Commission’s hearings closely,
and somewhat hopefully. We
see that truth is indeed beauty:
and beauty is truth.
We hope you enjoy this
edition, happy reading!
aims to boost optimal irrigation
methodologies, water conservation
and sustainability.
SABI promotes the sharing of
irrigation knowledge via:
• SABI membership and branch
activities
• SABI Congress, the bi-annual
leading African irrigation
event.
• IrrigationWise Academy
courses in agriculture
and landscape, presented
nationwide with courses from
entry to an advanced
technical level
• SABI magazine, the Institute’s
official technical journal and
the only irrigation magazine in
South Africa.
People from the irrigation, water,
agricultural, landscape and related
disciplines join SABI as they believe
that responsible irrigation water
use can result in water savings,
increased socio-economic benefits,
healthier communities, enhanced
agricultural production, sustainable
and attactive environments and
further benefits such as energy
saving.
To advertise in
SABI magazine
visit: www.sabi.co.za,
contact SABI on
+27 021 850 8220 or
email [email protected]
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SABI | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019