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Mr David Mudau Tshikhuthula is all smiles with his green produce at his field.

“I am small, yet I feed the district” boasts farmer

 

Little did a 10-year-old David Mudau Tshikhuthula know that his hobby of tilling the land as a boy while growing up in Mailaskop around 1961 would one day become his means of making a living.

He was always surrounded by people who ploughed, planted, and harvested mealies, sorghum seed, ground nuts, and beans for subsistence.

Today, Tshikhuthula (69) tills six hectares of field in the valley spreading behind Munzhedzi and Mailaskop villages, near Vleifontein. He plants muchaina, muxe, onions, butternuts, tomatoes, and spinach. He works with his family members, Suzan, Warren, Mashudu, and Ali Mudau.

“I learned about the soil and how to cultivate different types of plants and take care of them from my late grandfather, Vho-William Tshikhuthula, and my father, Vho-Frans Tshikhuthula,” he said. “Even though they have all gone to the spiritual world, I am left with a heritage that consists of keeping their farming legacy alive while I am also earning a living.”

He worked for different glass fitters between 1973 and 2011 before he was able to take up farming on a full-time basis.

“Not that I was not farming when I was still working,” he said. “I started ploughing on this piece of land around 1996 and produced hundreds of bags of mealies, which I sold to my fellow villagers, and also had bakkie-loads delivered to millers, who paid me well. Unfortunately, when I worked at the glass-fitting companies, I couldn't concentrate on my farming.”

He was able to focus on farming full-time after becoming a pensioner in June 2011, then he started ploughing the land. “I don't get assistance from my family members only,” he said. “I provide seasonal piece jobs to my fellow villagers also, and they are happy about that.”

Tshikhuthula reminded the people of Vhembe District that it was still possible to do subsistence farming when not all people had the skills and patience to focus on large-scale farming. “If you have a borehole in your yard, why don't you make a small vegetable garden for your kitchen?” he said. “Food is expensive, and one cannot afford everything. However, our produce is available to the public and supermarket stockists at reasonable prices. I am feeding the district. So, I urge chiefs to consider giving fields or pieces of land to ambitious farmers.”

Tshikhuthula can be reached on 076 459 8607.

 

Mr David Mudau Tshikhuthula (centre) is planting muxe at his field. With Tshikhuthula are Mesdames Suzan Mudau (left) and Grace Mathelemusa (right).

 

Date:23 July 2018

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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