Episode 60: Using village land to solve the problems of poverty

In this week’s episode, we talk to Yanga Stuurman, an engineer, non-executive director and partner in a mining and geology consulting firm. 

 

Yanga is also the founder of a social entrepreneurial venture, Sakhikamva, in the Eastern Cape. 

 

Yanga is originally from a farming village; her parents had farming projects when she was growing up but when her father passed away in 2015, a lot of the farming projects came to a halt and a lot of the villagers lost their jobs and source of income.

 

That’s when she decided to launch Sakhikamva, a project that teaches villagers how to farm, sell their produce and in turn create food and income security using the land.

 

She teamed up with the traditional council in her village to get their support and land for farming; the sub-headman helped her 80 - 100 households to pilot the project. The project was such a success that it was rolled out to 2 other villages and is now operating in 3 villages.

 

The villagers have nutritious and organic food to eat and all the excess produce produced is sold to local supermarkets. 

 

Sakhikamva has also been subcontracted to produce 800 tonnes by a well-known brand in South Africa and Yanga is also consulting with other villages to find new ways to use land to create sustainable income.

 

This is another inspiring episode. It highlights the importance of land and why land is wealth. 

 

Click play and leave us a link in the comments section below.