Ntombikayise Dlamini is an average 18-year-old currently studying her final grade at high school. Like most teenagers, she has had little interest in farming, saying “because we felt like it was hard work”.

A growing interest in vegetables

Ntombikayise’s mother Grace is the leader of a vegetable farming group supported by World Vision Australia’s Southern Africa Livelihoods Project (SALP).

Over the past year Ntombikayise began joining her mother and other group members as they worked together on their vegetable plots.

While the work involved in growing vegetables was tiresome, at some stage during her final year at school everything changed for Ntombikayise and she realised she actually really liked farming.

Dreaming of bigger gardens

As Ntombikayise nears her final school exams she also hopes to soon obtain her own plot of land in the group’s growing vegetable farm.

The SALP project has dramatically improved the farming business for the Sigomebeni group by securing fencing around the farm, creating a reliable water supply as well as providing training and support for the group to market their produce. The current members now produce greater volumes of crops that mean higher incomes as well as fresh opportunities for new group members like Ntombikayise.

SALP is showing signs of success when young people like Ntombikayise begin to enter farming, seeing it as a business opportunity rather than just a means of consumption or a minor income earning activity.

Follow Ntombikayise’s story to learn more about how her farming develops over the next year.