Growing food, growing jobs: Farmers Hope’s Tebogo Nyathela.
The entrepreneur and CEO of Farmers Hope, Tebogo Nyathela, is creating jobs and upskilling workers through sustainable farming practices on her farm in Kgomokgomo, North West.
Tebogo founded Farmers Hope with the desire to put good, nutritious food on the table of ordinary South Africans. Not content with just sustainable farming, Tebogo has ensured that the farm also practises sustainability when it comes to its employees.
Over the last nine years, Tebogo has transformed Farmers Hope into a fully-fledged farming initiative, which has empowered her community by fostering collaborations, with a particular emphasis on upskilling women.
After earning a BTech degree in marketing from the Tshwane University of Technology, Tebogo worked for various corporates such as FNB and Old Mutual, but it was in 2016, after a passion project saw her grow and donate vegetables to a few families in her community, that she decided it was time for a change.
The idea of a career change was daunting and Tebogo is frank about its challenges.
“It was not easy at all, especially after resigning, because you can imagine if you were comfortable with a certain salary and then suddenly you have no security blanket. I had so many challenges, but I decided to be persistent, and I can say thanks to my family because they understood my challenges.”
Tebogo currently spends two to three days a week living and working at the farm. But when her two children were growing up, she had to juggle travelling 80 kilometres to and from the farm every day.
However, this is a woman who balances work and rest by prioritising the latter, explaining, “Now I make sure that I have a day or two that I don’t go to the farm at all. I make sure that I get ‘me time’ so that I can recharge.”
Tebogo’s strong entrepreneurial drive and focus was instilled in her from an early age.
Growing up in the village of Bethanie in the North West, she watched her late father run his own business buying and selling cattle for a living, which afforded her the opportunity to attend university.
Her father’s business savvy also taught her the fundamentals on how to handle herself as an entrepreneur, while making smart business decisions. The flash of a luxury car made way for the practicality of a bakkie, all in the name of business growth. It’s this practicality that has seen her farm in Kgomokgomo flourish year on year and create jobs for 29 people, while delivering fresh vegetables to countless others.
“Our company is also an accredited training provider with AgriSETA, so we train the people who are working at the farm. Every two or three months we have short courses that we do with the workers, so we make sure that we provide them with skills,” Tebogo explains.
Farmers Hope is upskilling its workers, but it’s educating people on how to adopt healthier eating habits too, with its website educating people how to properly cook vegetables.
Tebogo’s work has been widely supported and celebrated through various programmes.
In 2017 she was selected as a Tony Elumelu Foundation entrepreneur representing South Africa and acquired funding for Farmers Hope. Then in 2021, she was selected for the Africa Women Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF) Growth Accelerator Programme after her successful pitch, followed swiftly by her selection as one of the GIBS and French Embassy Women in Agriculture in 2022.
Tebogo was a beneficiary of the Accelerator Programme under the South African Green and Inclusive Awards, implemented by Indalo Inclusive and supported by Nedbank.
Ever the forward thinker, Tebogo is now looking to the future by investing in agri-food processing methods, admitting, “There was too much post-harvest loss at the farm, so we decided to venture into agri-food processing. Now we don’t have any food wastage at all.”
It’s this innovation that has made Tebogo a crucial pillar of her community, and has seen her take on the role as a sort of guardian of opportunities.
“I know that some people are really looking up to me. They’re looking at me to create more jobs and reduce this unemployment rate. So, I don’t take it for granted,” she adds.
Tebogo is adamant that if she can build her business from the ground up, other women and mothers can too. “I want everyone to know that it’s possible to run a business. You just have to have a greater vision, focus, and pray to God to help you and give you strength all the way.”
With Farmers Hope feeding the country, Tebogo is also feeding hope for a stronger economy.