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We've got Vaisha Naidu who says, I love private property because they cover huge range of options and areas for properties. They're always on the ball and providing the best advice and guidance to anyone seeking to invest in property in showing that you are well-informed and equipped to make the best decisions for yourself. And she goes on to say that, the clients that come into the podcast are very friendly and they guarantee the best service as well as we're just not an agent who takes people for granted but we're always professionals in everything that we do. And so she then adds hashtag one million followers and hashtag private property. Just another comment I wanna read in before we get into our guests this evening is from Ponzo Mamelo Ntsiniye. And she says, congratulations, fam. I love the private property because of the podcasts. They are so informative and I love that you invite proper people to equip me with all the skills and knowledge I need for when I finally purchased my first property. Thank you for the free educational podcasts, fam. Hashtag one million followers, hashtag 5,000 shares, hashtag 10,000 comments. So please join the movement, hashtag one million followers, hashtag private property essay and all our social media platforms and tell us your one million reasons why you love the farming podcast. Farming podcast as well as all the other private property podcasts that we have on our platforms. But tonight's guest is a female agripreneur. I'm always happy when I speak to female farmers, female professionals, female entrepreneurs in the sector because it goes to show that there are actually females that are doing phenomenal work in the sectors and that we're not hiding in our corners somewhere, but we really are focused on growing the industry at large. And today's guest is Gugule Tumachlangu and we're gonna speak about her initiative called Farm Spaces which she holds on Twitter. And this ties into our topic for tonight's show about how to grow an online agri-community. The world is literally virtual nowadays because of the global pandemic. And so online is such an integral part in learning and gaining information, especially around a sector that not many people know of. And so if you haven't catch on to Farm Spaces, it's it. I encourage you to please follow Farm Spaces, follow Gugule Tumachlangu's work. And tonight's episode is all about what she does and we'll get a bit more detail into Farm Spaces and how they're educating an online agri-community. If you have any questions for our guests tonight, please comment and we'll be happy to answer all your questions live on to the show. Well, let's get to it. Gugule Tumachlangu, thank you so much for joining us. How are you doing? Hi, I'm Vali, thank you so much for having me. I'm doing great, so how are you doing? I'm doing awesome, thank you. Let's get into know firstly who Gugule Tumachlangu is. So what do you do and what, yeah, how are you operating in the agri-sector at large? Well, I'm a farmer. I'm currently working as an aquaponics homesoculturist for a company, I'm trying to, you know, broaden my horizons when it comes to farming and the agricultural sector. And yeah, I started Farm Spaces this year. I started Farm Spaces this year. Yeah, it feels like it's been forever, but I recently started Farm Spaces because I really wanted to bridge the gap of information when it comes to agriculture and kind of make someone else's life much more simpler than it was for me when I entered the agri-sector. That is fantastic. So you've given us a snippet as to why you started Farm Spaces and why this year? Why didn't you start maybe two years ago? Was it just because, you know, a lot of people started inquiring, started reaching out to you, asking about agri-information and even if they were, what type of information were they seeking from you that made you start Farm Spaces? That is a very good question, Bali, as to why this year, right? Because I'm sure you as a female farmer as well can agree that it's not easy being in the sector because of the lack of information access and just mentorship, someone who guides you and holds your hand as to even ways to just buy something as simple as your inputs. So it was just a huge challenge for me. And the more people started inquiring on Twitter and social medias that I use that, hi, where do we get this? How do I do this? Where can I buy my produce? Where do we even get land? How's it been brought to seed? I want to be a farmer, but I don't have that knowledge. So I just decided to take that up on myself to be like, how about we talk about this? And because of COVID, I think we, well, it made me come up with a much more creative way to reach people with inquiries. And I initially, you know, I'm always on Twitter. Twitter's one of my favorite social media apps. So I, because it's very engaging, right? We always have topics, there's always trending topics. So it's a very good tool to use to have conversations. So from that platform, they now launch this feature called Spaces. And what Spaces is, it's just audio live conversations. So I was like, how about, you know, I just start one. I mean, just really, you know, testing it out and talk to farmers and just like, hey, let's have a conversation. And it was mind blowing, you know, because when we got there, we realized we have so much to speak about. And I think that's when Farm Spaces was born. And yeah, it wasn't even called Farm Spaces. I think I called it Farmers Q&A, something like that. I'm not sure. But it wasn't, you know, as established as it is now, it was more of an idea. Hey guys, I know this guy's into cattle, that guy's into cattle, please come. People wanna know questions. I can't answer because I'm not into cattle. So that's how it started. Wow. And just for any of our audience watching tonight that is maybe not familiar with the, you know, with the Spaces platform within Twitter, how does one get involved? Do they just follow you on Twitter and then just wait for your turnouts when this conversation is gonna happen? And even when it does happen, how do people engage? Do they engage by asking questions, just typing them? Or do they get the opportunity to speak to you directly and maybe to the farmer that is on that live audio platform? So maybe just take us slowly into how Farm Spaces work and how aspirant farmers and farmers alike can really participate in this dialogue of Farm Spaces. All right, so firstly, it is on Twitter. So you would have to have the Twitter app on your phone. I know Twitter is working to get it on the desktop but it's not, to my knowledge, that hasn't happened yet. So you'd have to have Twitter. So most of the time, farmers really aren't so social media savvy. So I'd kinda have to tell them, hey, please download Twitter, even beg them sometimes. Please just download Twitter just for this occasion. So how it works is that you'd have to have Twitter. You don't necessarily have to follow me because Twitter generates a link that I can send to people. And now you can schedule your space. So if you go on my page, I have a schedule space for 5 p.m. I mean, 6 p.m. So you can sit a reminder for yourself. And once you log in, it's an audio conversation. So it's almost like a podcast. There's no video, it's just audio. And then we have experts. I usually choose a topic, but I love to engage with just the Twitter online community in terms of farmers and emerging farmers, aspiring. Anyone in the agricultural sector, I asked them, what do we need to be speaking about? What kind of topics do we need to really talk about and let people understand or create awareness? And from then, that's when I start the topic and I bring our speakers, experts in the topic, in the field, and then we have a conversation. We have a conversation from how to start, where to go, what to do, and then usually I open up the floor for listeners to ask them direct questions because I started Farm Spaces not really knowing where it would go, but now I've found that what is really important for the agri-community online is information. So they are now driving Farm Spaces in the sense that they are able to be like asking you, hi, Mali, how do I do this? How do I do that? Where do I go? And then you can give them an answer. And I really feel like it's such a fulfilling platform because you hear it from the horse's mouth. So that's where people can find it and that's what it's about. It's a casual conversation in terms of the questions. If you can't, maybe people are shy sometimes. If you don't want to speak, you can just send me a DM. I usually also read the questions that people take to me. Yeah. I think it's such a great initiative because we can never have enough information, especially around the sector because every farmer is different. Everybody cultivates or farms differently, raises them cattle, livestock, chickens differently. There's not one approach to make it a success in this industry. So it's a great platform that you want on and especially also roping in experts because we all have different journeys going into the sector. And as farmers, we're all farming in different geographic regions. So what might work well in KZN might not work well in the Northwest in Bumalanga, vice versa. Just again, on the farm space, as you mentioned, it's all about Twitter. How long do the conversations last? And how do you manage an influx of questions where then people start saying, I want to come to the farms and visit because as much as farming, you might learn from a theoretical aspect, there's still a practical, physical element into farming. So how do you then manage people who say, I want to now visit farms to the farmer in that floor or the expert who's providing expert advice? How do I then go visit farms to actually get practical training? How do you solve inquiries such as those? Balie, I think because we are bringing experts who are willing to share information, who are willing to spoon us on a certain topic, they are opening themselves up. They are saying, hey, if you need any further advice or if you'd like to touch base with me, you can contact me at, then they leave their details. And that will be up to the farmer and the aspiring farmer or anyone else to take that next step. I think what farm spaces is doing is that we are just trying to provide a platform for conversations and we are providing a platform for learning so that tomorrow you are able to know that perhaps the government institutions have certain funding or programs available to you. Maybe you did not know that or that starting on a Hector is more wiser than starting investing all your money on a 10 Hector. So it's these conversations that get people really clued up about how the agri industry works and from then on, they now had the responsibility to use that information as they wish. Wow, this is fantastic. And I just wanna know as well, what are some of the frequently asked questions that have come up onto the farm spaces? Just if you could share some of them so that we also know what people really wanna know about the agri sector. So it will be interesting to know what are the frequently asked questions that time and time again, week in, week out, you're getting within the farm spaces platform. I think it's very difficult to answer that one because there's so many different topics we've covered. We've done a recent, we've done beekeeping, we've done cabbage, we've done exports, we've done so many different topics and they all have their own different needs. So, but I really feel like number one topic will always be profitability. People want to know, can I make a career out of the space that I'm venturing into? Can I make money? Is this worth my time? Is this worth my investments? Is this worth me going to school for, taking up courses? Is this even worth me leaving my job? So people wanna know that the agricultural sector is profitable, is able to put food on the table for themselves. I feel like farmers would tirelessly to put food on the table for the nation, but are they making income? So that for me, I feel like is the number one question, or rather, question mark on the agricultural sector. Where is it going? How profitable is it? Do we have the right channels to ensure that new emerging farmers are able to be commercial and be there for a long time, not just open up a farm and try something and it doesn't work out and then you go back to your day job? So really the passion that is around agriculture, how do we turn that into careers? Right. And am I correct in saying that a lot of the audience members that joined the farm spaces are aspirant farmers. Is it people that just wanna go into farming that maybe have land at home and they haven't started anything and they're just curious about how do I enter this industry, like you've said, based on the frequently asked question. So majority of the audience members within farm spaces or that joined this dialogue aspirant farmers or have you found that there are many farmers who are still seeking to upscale their own knowledge and information about the agri-sector? Great question. Yes, funny enough, it is always emerging farmers. Farmers actually want to upscale. So it's farmers that are already in the industry looking to be profitable. So something is not working where they are. And it's interesting, I think, that we have all these farmers in the agricultural sector. I feel like I was one of them. So we are in the sector, but like how do we become profitable? How do we move from point A to B? I've been in point A for maybe a year or two years and I don't see growth. So that is the information that people really want to know. How do I become a data farmer? How do I become profitable? Is it possible for a small-scale farmer like myself to mechanize? So it's such questions that farmers really need more information on. How do they make this a career? Where do they go when they want to get extra funding or capital so that they can grow their businesses? So it always comes from that aspect. And obviously they are aspiring farmers on the space that really want to join agriculture. I feel like agriculture is always that attractive sector to go in because of all, I guess misconceptions about it. People think it's rose and sunrises and sunsets, but it isn't attractive sector, but people need to now understand how do we grow in the sector? How do we start making money? And most importantly, how do we transfer skills? We have so many skilled and wonderful farmers in the agricultural sector that are a good source of mentorships. How do we access that knowledge? So that's something that I've picked up on Farm Spaces that a lot of us need information on how to really make these careers. Fantastic. If you're just tuning into the Private Property Farming Podcast this evening, we are speaking to Ukulea Tumashango. She's a farmer and agripreneur and also the founder of Farm Spaces. And she's just pretty much summarized what Farm Spaces is about. It's a platform on Twitter where you get to engage in interactive dialogues, topic-specific related to agriculture. And she's mentioned that so far she's hosted dialogues around beekeeping, cabbage, exports, et cetera. And a lot of the people that join Farm Spaces are aspirant farmers who want to know about the dynamics that the industry holds, access to finance, markets, information, transfer of knowledge, transfer of skills. And you just need to follow her page on Twitter. And she will tell us her Twitter handle at the end of the show. But if you're just watching and you're just curious to know who's this female farmer that we're talking to? It's Ukulea Tumashango. And we're talking about how to build an online agri-community. And specifically for this topic tonight, we're talking about Farm Spaces. So, I just want to find out, because we've seen on social media, you are doing Farm Spaces alongside Food from Zanzi as a brand. And we've had Food from Zanzi on the show as well. So how did that partnership or collaboration come on board? And if you could just please give us some insights into that. Food from Zanzi is an online digital platform that really promotes agriculture and food in general. And I really feel like I got attracted to them very instantly because of just the work that they do, forever rooting for the farmer, big and small. And so I have been featured on Food from Zanzi and I have a good close working relationship with them. They had a program, Sinelies with Journalism, Sisters in Journalism program that I applied for. And I got accepted and it was a year long program. And I won for Northwest Province. So I'm officially a Sisters in Journalist for Food from Zanzi. So with that partnership with them and that relationship that I built and them seeing what I was doing, I think they picked it up very easy because they're so good at that. They're so good at looking out for the real stories in our sector. They were like, we really love this platform and we want to collaborate with you. And I was like, absolutely. I definitely am aligned with what Food from Zanzi is doing and I knew that they already have the stories that are out there. So we could make a perfect partnership where they expose me to the wonderful farmers that they've interviewed and I can bring the space that I am working on and we could speak about it and really promote the farmer because so many times people want to get information and not really understand that farmers work very hard for that information that they want. So with that partnership that I had with Food from Zanzi, we decided to look at the stories that are most impactful and decide on topics that, okay, let's feature this farmer because they had covered an article on him or her and get them on the show. And so it's been a very smooth transition for me as founder of Farm Spaces, because I had to do everything alone. I had to get the farmer. I had to call, I had to DM. Sometimes I had to, you know, please beg and be like, please, please come. We really need you here. So with this partnership, it's made it very easy for me and it's working very well. Yeah, I love what you're saying about getting the farmers onto the show because I know farmers are just by nature introverts. You know, they don't like being on social media. So tell me about that process of actually getting the different farmers who have different skill sets to get onto the show. How's that journey like? It's hard. I don't want to lie to you. It's hard, you know, because they're on farms. Sometimes, you know, there's no network and it's like, this was your guest and now like there's nothing you can do because you can't even hear them. So it's those challenges. But you know, I mean, my heart was in the right place. I think everyone needed that. Okay, she really tried to bring the speaker. You know, stuff happened, they're on farms. So they understood. And I was still starting out. So which ones are in that partnership kind of also helped mitigate that, you know, because then, you know, they give me their stories way in advance and I am able to communicate with the farmer, you know, way in advance. So we can also, I can brief the farmer that, hey, this is how it's happening. Maybe do a mic check, you know, one to answer with them. You know, also just brief them so that they can understand what they are exposing themselves to because farmers are introverts, you're right, Mali. And you know, they just want to keep space. They just want to farm. They're not really interested in much. So it's such a privilege to always have them on the show because they're imparting so many valuable lessons. And I always get such positive feedback every farm space that, wow, you know, thank you so much for bringing this farmer. It's a farmer that I looked up to and they really made me understand, you know, maybe how to grow spinach or, you know, when to irrigate or maybe they even shared their fertilizer programs with them. So it's stuff like that, that really make it worthwhile. Wow, that's, it's just incredible to see how far you've come from just starting it from an idea to working with food from Zanzi to obviously creating an impact and creating a space that becomes a knowledge hub for people who want to farm or be in the agri sector. I just want to ask as well, with the audience that have been a part of farm spaces, have you picked up that we're getting, you're getting a lot more females onto the platform or young people, you know, what's the interest like? Who are you attracting within farm spaces? Because, you know, I'm sure you know this that, you know, when you speak about agri it's all male dominated. There's not enough females in the sector. There's not enough youth in the sector. So what have you found since you started farm spaces? Are there a lot more females being attracted to the space or being participating in the dialogues as well as are there a lot of youth participating in the dialogues as well? You know, Mbali, I wish I had some sort of metric to measure that because each and every topic is different, you know, we've had speakers from Africa, which I thoroughly enjoy, you know, to have African voices in the farming spaces, which, you know, further cements how global, you know, food production is. And, you know, we have a lot of Africans, you know, from Zem, from Uganda, to Ghana, Kenya especially, and they all come to the space. And it's mostly males, I have to admit that it is mostly males, but there are females that are coming into the sector, coming into their own. I think a lot of times females are still feeling, what's the word now? I don't want to say, I feel like there's a bit of fear when it comes to females, especially maybe even to ask questions, you know, on farm spaces because the males are dominating so much. And we know I am hoping to change that by inviting more females speakers on the topics that I have, just to ensure that there's always a female voice so that we can encourage an uplift females so that they can see that, you know, agriculture, you know, commercially in livestock, in crop production looks like this. So currently it is still male dominated, you know, and it's males from all across Africa, but we are trying our best to change that recently with our beekeeping episode. We had a wonderful lady from Eden Roots who makes her own products. She's a beekeeper and she makes her own products. So that was a very inspiring session for the women involved because they now were able to ask a lot of questions and they started, you know, speaking to her directly and trying to find out more on the fields because they kind of saw a presentation of themselves. So it is still a male dominated field. You know, we don't have a long way to go there, but it is slowly changing. Right. And whilst we're still on the topic of females and considering that we are still in a woman's month, what advice would you give to females in the agriculture space, you know, not necessarily farmers, but young graduates who have graduated in any agri course, to farmers, yes, to agri, to professionals working for agri corporates of Africa, to women working in associations, what advice would you give to females in the sector as part of women's month? I think my advice to women in the sector would be to gather as much information as you can. You know, information is power and equip yourself with some sort of training or education because I think that really does go a long way and most importantly, get yourself a mentor. You know, I think we always hear this amongst ourselves, but we really don't appreciate the value that a mentor can break, you know, because a mentor can really help save your time, you know, so that you are able to do the right thing from the onset. So I would advise, you know, try to get a mentor. I know farmers are very, very busy, you know, and maybe time is not on their side, but, you know, try shadowing them, try shadow them. Also, you know, don't have the fear of being intimidated by the male-dominated industry that we are in. I feel that women need to really find their inner voice, really find their inner power, because, you know, once that's unleashed, you can really only go to the top from there. So believe in yourself, you know, you are amazing, you are smart, you're beautiful, and you're also very capable. You know, you can do the job just as better as the next person. So I really feel like, you know, just that industry fear, women need to rise above that. And, you know, we are here, you know, you are here, Mani, you know, so many amazing women in the sex are doing amazing things all day to draw inspiration from. So I'll definitely encourage women to take up space, you know? Yeah, hashtag take up space. Thank you so much for your time this evening, Coco. We are really, really, really appreciate your efforts. And with this platform or dialogue that you started with Farm Spaces, I hope people or our audience watching tonight could just follow you. If you could just end off the show with maybe your Twitter handle so that people maybe could follow you and then look out for the dialogues in future. And yeah, I think that is it from us, but thank you so much for your time. But please, if you could just share your Twitter handle for us. Okay, thank you so much, Mbali. My Twitter handle is Googleetu underscore C for cats, M for mommy, and the same with my Instagram. But I really, Twitter is my favorite app ever. Please reach out to me on Twitter. So yeah, thank you so much. It's a pleasure. Thank you so much, Coco. We were just speaking to Googleetu Matlango and our topic for this evening was how to start an online agri-community. And we got to learn about her initiative or space within Twitter called Farm Spaces, which is pretty much a dialogue where an aspirant farmer or a farmer can join in and ask questions and maybe educate transfer skills, transfer knowledge through this Farm Spaces platform and assist each other. It's all about community sharing, sharing knowledge, providing valuable insights and advice. And maybe you might just grow a successful farm from all the experts that she brings on to the show. So she did mention a Twitter handle, Googleetu underscore C M, I believe, and just follow her on Twitter. She is best on Twitter, as she mentioned, and look out for her posts regarding Farm Spaces. But before we end the show tonight, I just wanna read one last comment with regards to our one million followers that we've reached on our Facebook platform. And this one is from Gatheko Agape. She says, I love private property because it goes beyond property advertisements. Private property is a trendsetter in the property space. It is a networking and educational platform that is in touch with its clients, its buyers visiting it to shop, agents and sellers as well as advertisers, their properties. This is not an organization that exists to make profits but is generously giving back to the community. Thank you, private property. Thank you, Gatheko, for being part of the private property community, supporting all our podcasts that we have on private property and continue to like, share, comment on our social media platforms. Go on to our YouTube channel, subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. We've got tons of content there. And also thank you for supporting the farming podcast. Be sure to catch me on Thursday at 8 p.m. with another wonderful guest. However, this is it from me. See you on Thursday. Take care.