The Tshwaraganang hydroponics project has turned the corner of yet another significant milestone in its quest to create sustainable prosperity for its shareholders. Having achieved almost its entire business plan targets, it came as no surprise when in February 2010, the project recorded a cumulative sales income of R 1 million.

This amount represents total cucumber sales which began in October 2008 when the project started selling its first, near-negligible quantities of produce to the market. At that time in October 2008, only R60 000 worth of cucumbers had been sold. By the end of June 2009, they had pushed up their sales income to over R600 000. The current R1 million corresponds to an outstanding average increase of 98% in sales revenue per month over a sixteen-month period. Mr. Nols Ferreira of Shoprite, a top management personnel of the supermarket chain operator confirms his excitement with the business relationship established with the young greenhouse producer, Tshwaraganang Hydroponics. “We’re very happy with the produce supplied to us”, he says. This partnership with the market, particularly with Freshmark in Bloemfontein, has been extremely significant to how things have turned out for Tshwaraganang; perhaps an endorsement of the ASNAPP model of a market-first, science-based approach to community development.

But it has not always been like this for a company that began way back in 1999 with painful teething challenges. The Northern Cape Department of Agriculture and Land Reform entered the fray in 2000 to support an initiative which was barely finding its feet after being started in September 13, 1999. Amidst many nay voices expressing concern that hydroponics production was alien to the Northern Cape, a 15 bay multi-span was established in 2006 covering an area of 3600 sq meters. However, this structure would remain unused until 2008 when the Department of Agriculture appointed ASNAPP as a mentor to revive the initiative and to train its manpower to manage it on sound business principles. The National Development Agency provided running cost for one year.   

ASNAPP commenced its mentorship program in earnest during which staff of the new greenhouse company were trained in the theory and practice of hydroponics production. Trainees had to spend several weeks at the ASNAPP Welgevallen experimental farm facility located in Stellenbosch, South Africa. These trained personnel then returned to the company not only armed with a new set of skills, but also with the determination to make life better for themselves, and for fellow community members at Tshwaraganang.

The history of Tshwaraganang itself is the very history of mining in the Windsorton area of the Northern Cape. Established in the 1800s, mining has been at the core of community life in this area and gave meaning to social security, commerce and enterprise among its dwellers. But when mining activity declined in the 1990s, Tshwaraganang community life declined too. Its mainly Coloured and Setswana inhabitants were left to survive on seasonal agricultural jobs and a heavily downsized mining job opportunities.

Against a background like this, Tshwaraganang Hydroponics has become an oasis in a desert of severe community livelihood and employment challenges. The present challenge is, therefore,  to cover more ground and turn parched desert lands into streams of hope. To the management of the company, this means expanding the current production base to 40 000 sq meters within the next 7 years. It would mean the installation of energy screens to safe energy in winter and to control cost in summer backed by a strong R&D. Finally, this would mean diversifying its crop lines to include tomatoes, among others, and constructing a pack house by the end of 2010.

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