“i only want the best...” – siphosihle maseko

“i only want the best...”

– siphosihle maseko article by howard champ

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Travelling to hidden gems off the beaten track is one of the many rewarding facets of working for Nuvance. Our small-scale grower client base is rapidly growing and recently, I had the pleasure of visiting one of these growers situated near Middledrift in the Eastern Cape. Siphosihle Maseko recently graduated from the Nelson Mandela Metro University with a diploma in Agriculture and has since hit the ground running with a passion to farm. I don't recall the entire conversation, but during my first call with him (to discuss our cabbage varieties) what stuck in my mind was Siphosihle saying: “I don’t care which variety you suggest, as long as it’s the best... I only want the best!”. Siphosihle is targeting the informal cabbage market, where size matters and bigger is always better. To this end, I advised him to grow ‘Excalibur’. This variety is a medium to large cabbage which reaches maturity in 80 days. It can be grown all year round in temperate climates and has good resistance to black rot.

I visited him recently and so far, he is very happy with the performance despite experiencing a heavy locust infestation during the early stages of his crop. Thankfully the crop recovered and grew out and we are expecting an early, healthy harvest. Despite Siphosihle Maseko & Howard Champmany challenges, Siphosihle maintained good basic agricultural practices, by ridging, practising responsive irrigation and excellent weed control using both herbicides as well as manual control. These simple but timeous practices together with a good hardy cultivar will guarantee a successful crop. Thanks to his excellent training, Siphosihle is also mindful of issues regarding soil structure and mineral exhaustion and has therefore implemented crop rotation with maize. Currently, Siphosihle has 6 hectares of maize and 3 hectares of cabbage in rotation. Many of the elders in his area are watching with interest and we are confident that ‘Excalibur' is going to be a major role player in the cabbage spec market soon. We wish Siphosihle all the success he deserves and look forward to a continued partnership leading the way in cabbage production. Watch this space! Next batch of Excalibur sown