 everybody to the private property farming podcast. I'm super excited today because we have a female farmer on the show. As always, whenever we have females on to the show, I get excited because you know what they say about this industry. It's male dominated and we don't get to see a lot of female, we don't get to see a lot of youth. But trust me, we are deep down in the trenches working hard in our farms and we are contributing towards the sector. So today we're going to learn a bit more about Devral scenery farm owned by Devral Lechordi, Lechordi to be exact. And we just want to know about what she's doing, her farming journey, she is farming niche crops, herbs to be specific and is also I believe cooperating with spinach. So we know that spinach is such a big commodity, it's a cash crop, it's you know it's it's also very much in demand but yet again suppliers still can't get enough, still can't find the right suppliers at the end of the day or consistent suppliers. So I also want to know from Devral why spinach is such a lucrative crop from her and why she decided to farm it. You know who is she selling her spinach to because a lot of farmers are producing spinach. Our topic for today is the future is greens. The future is green herbs and fresh are the new niche crops to farm. So if you have any questions for Devral please feel free to comment and ask questions and we will be happy to respond because this is what we do. The podcast is for you and we're here to educate, inspire and inform you about the agricultural industry. So let's get right onto it and say hello to Devral. Hi, how are you doing? Hi, I'm Valee. I'm good thanks and how are you? And hi to all of you as well. I'm doing fantastic. So what on the street is that you started your farm during COVID. What inspired you to go into the agricultural business especially during that time? So when I started agriculture actually my love actually came from fish aquaculture and so I had two new seeds to go to the incalcologist by measurement and I was so excited because I wanted to see how the operations work. And so when I got there I found that actually the operation has a lot to do with the whole production to do with aquaculture with the fish producing the feces producing fertilizer for the herbs and so the herbs will produce fresh water for the fish. And so for me I was stuck in and I was like I'm really going to go hardcore into this thing and I was so amazed as to how the fish feces would produce fertilizer for the herbs. And so when I, and so when I familiarize myself with all the farmers in in Broncosbury who are doing herbs which I found in Cullinan and I was so excited and I was like okay this is what I want to do. I want to start. And so when lockdown hit I have a piece of land. I have five hectares per se to say and I started out with spring onion spinach and parsley and from then on I would read, I read all about agriculture. I read about doing everything the right way. The spring programs passing it accordingly to each and every single herb. And it was a ride of joy from then on I was stuck and I would say thank you to COVID even though the pandemic hit hard but I was so excited to start in ways. That's amazing. You know one of the typical one of the most common advices that we get from guests that come on to the show, especially when they need to around empowering youth in agriculture. Everybody says just start. So I'm so happy to know that you're an individual who just started right we had no excuses and just went for it. So I suppose two three years down the line you're farming herbs. What type of herbs are you farming over and above the spinach and I believe you also are farming spring onion. So what type of herbs are farming? What type of herbs are you farming and what is the market looking like? Do you have a big demand from a market perspective? Who are you selling to and are herbs profitable because they're very light in weight? So this is the thing about herbs. You need to understand your market first. So when I started out with herbs I started out with coriander and parsley and spring onion. And so when I did spring onion it was it was a ride because everybody wanted spinach. But the problem was that when lockdown hit I didn't have a market because all my herbs were going to restaurants and restaurants were closed down by that time. So I think quickly because you don't want it to overgrow and it becomes something else. So I started looking for agro processes that would process the parsley and everything else. So they would take everything in bulk. And so I took I think almost and also spring I mean herbs are actually much more valuable than your ordinary you know vegetables. So you know a bundle can cost a good seven rand or a kg can cost 120 rand then a bundle of spinach will cost like 10 rand. So when I started taking my things to the niche market which is the agro processes and obviously you're small and you can pace and household during COVID time it was difficult but I made it through. That's when the whole rotation came through for me to start spinach because when it was eating spinach everybody wanted to eat healthy. Everybody was going vegan and so I was like okay when lockdown will be done I'll go back some of herbs because the first love actually came from the herb. But I still do have herbs. I have parsley and coriander. What grows best is coriander during the cold and parsley grows exceptionally well in the spring until the mid-summer. Fantastic. And are you still selling to your retail clients or have you diversified now especially around marketing your herbs? Yes I have diversified definitely. So in restaurants I'm now open. I can't meet my demand actually which is quite a problem. Everybody is looking but I do send out to frontline hyper. I do send out to food lovers. I do send out to our local quote phrases as well as our everyday house. I think there's a gentleman who takes I didn't implant a lot of mint but he takes mint every single week and because he makes tea with the mint. So I'm also not my demand on mint as well and I was just trying it out and it's just there but now it grows continuously. I think it's called a poem. Yeah I didn't draw a call chat. It's okay I mean you learn along the way you know I mean Jesus so much to learn and agree you know from production mechanization selling marketing price negotiations so trust me we've got you we've got you but devil I believe you won recently won an award. Tell us about that award and what has changed since you've become an award-winning farmer? So when I first um so I think the the motivation comes from our host Mbali because we met I didn't meet um um graduate we met um you were hosting at the farmers in Hills forming in Hills event the first one and we spoke how you started out and so when I saw that I was like okay so if Mbali could can make it let me try and see how I will start like two minutes and in my farming experience and go really hard um so when I started doing two hectares of um my my herbs and then when I gradually grew into um I did a 1.5 hectares of spinach and I didn't know that the demand was so much and I didn't know that I'm recognized by you know the the prison or McCain or the local markets would want my my produce all the time and so when I got the opportunity and and when I went to the to the summit I was like I'm just gonna go and learn an experience you know it's gonna be I want reading people it's like I'm gonna maybe I'm gonna see Mbali again and our fortune she was not there and when they said um sort of sort of form of the year was Daryl I was like me he could not be me was and so I was I was really I put I was really amazed I was really excited and it took me back to my humble beginning when I started out to with with herbs just that small small piece and gradually growing and it's really an honor and I could never be so grateful and thankful so yeah oh well congratulations congratulations and I'm super excited that you are going out there attending conferences you know um trying to educate yourself um just to become a successful farmer at the end of the day because we always encourage that right that is how people can learn around the industry meet other farmers at events you know share knowledge also hear farmers experiences because I think people think that from the outside looking in farming is quite pretty however it's very difficult there's so many elements that one needs to learn at a very short space in time and also manage right so that you have a successful crop at the end of the day so kudos to you for putting yourself out there you know for for for engaging with other farmers in conferences and also taking the advice that farmers have been giving and obviously adopting it and trialing out by yourself so tell me what are some of the challenges that you experienced I mean two three years down the line you you didn't study Agri what are the challenges that you experienced over and above COVID-19 with with restaurants shutting down maybe talk about the actual production you know did you have any severe pest and diseases especially when you started farming herbs because we all know that herbs are delicate um did you are you farming in open land do you have mechanization to cultivate or plow that land give us some production challenges that you have experienced over the two three years that you've been operating and how you overcome those challenges okay so when I saw it out obviously I had no idea when it comes to making a normal bait I had no idea what is a raised bed from the onset so when I started out with herbs I got the opportunity to actually um work on I think it was a list of my hexa I believe and I don't know what I did wrong but I presumed that I was because I was planting two um cultivars of parsley which is the curly moss and the Italian so the Italian was um doing so well in them on the summons but my parsley moss was not doing so great and the insects I would find oh different kinds I didn't understand what yes last week I put it in a supplementary and the other week I am putting in another one called rose care and then the so I'm putting too much into the the parsley that the spraying program is a lot because I'm trying to save the whole the whole parsley so and also it was a it was at that current time there was a lot of rain and you know there's a temperature that you cannot really control and by that time I was on open land strictly open land and I didn't I know I was using drip irrigation because it saves water and it's the whole theory so I just decided I didn't I don't even know the difference between irrigation as a drip and sprinkler and mist it was just a lot so that also was a challenge because I didn't know whether it wanted me to sprinkle the water on top and not on the ground straight to the roots and I didn't understand what would temperature do to my to my to my herbs and once um it rains constantly it cannot really survive because now it has fungus and you need to also research what fungus can I be able to to use for a different um um herb then I then went oh and then I went to do um what do you call this um what do you call this it's um it's a different kind of a herb rocket sorry it's a rocket and when I did rocket it was exceptionally well and you don't understand okay so it might be one family can be herbs um one family but then they all have you have to care of them different needs and what they need and how they grow and also the soil was also I think for me it wasn't a big advantage because I've really really fertile soil so I didn't really do much with the soil and because my my dad has two tractors and he has um implements so I would work according to okay before I do plant I need to plough first and then I used to um disc and after disking I would make a raised bed and after that I would be able to see how how soft it is so for me to plant so it was just a lot it was a miss at the beginning but um my my my my program of the insecticides I was really worried about because um when you know when you spray um your your your your chemicals your supermatrons you have to wait seven days a week before you can actually taste it your herb if it still tastes better or sweet and so I told my my my family especially my mom that I'm not a scientist or any but I need to create my own insecticide which is organic in a way that if after a couple of a couple of minutes I can still go back and taste it and see if it actually works and so when I created my own um insecticide um it was it was it was a big deal for me and that is when McCain came through and I let them know that this is what I did because my my scare is that what if I need to harvest and my kind ones um he's full time every week I cannot really harvest for him because I've sprayed sap amateuring and he needs to go so and having those challenges and then I think last year um uh I put um shading it so that I can be able to protect um the herbs and the spinach especially for conversation also when you um um um planting on soil you need to do conversation I didn't know that because after the next year I'll plant on the same ground with the the same and the insects will go out so this is home and I didn't know that that now a lot of this stealing and that's just sitting and enjoying the ride and it was just a big disadvantage and then I understood the importance of computation oh wow wow you've you've you've uh definitely experienced a lot right and I'm I'm so glad that you've picked up on the chemicals the withholding periods etc so you are an invest invested farmer into your operations tell us what does the future look like for devil are you looking to expand I heard you say you're farming on five hectares are you fully utilizing that five hectares or are you just producing right now in two so tell us about your expansion plans and what your farm looks like for the future so um on the future I'm not using the whole five there's a two hectares that I cannot really use because um I'm not sure if it's going to work because that's a lot of clay soil and also um it's really close to the river and we can possibly get what we call um frost every single every single day right now there's frost every single time so on that two hectares I'm planning to do a vertical farm um to expand my produce and so that I can be able to become more organic and also I am trying to work upon trying to get a what do you call this um a land where I can secure for um sunflower and so I really want to go into I want to go into sunflower that is one of the plans I'm looking to lease um I think 300 which I recently found so that I can start production with sunflower I'm trying to get a plan to get the seed and your vertical farming on the two hectares and sunflower and go um big okay great just to make sure that we heard you right because you did break a little bit so you're saying you're trying to um obviously go vertical farming in the two hectares but you have acquired a 300 hectare farm which you're looking to farm sunflower is that correct yes yes okay fantastic well thank you so much for your time onto the show Deverell um we thoroughly enjoyed your conversation and you teaching us about herbs you know and just sharing your journey and uh yeah just from what you're saying you've got huge room for growth especially for your business as well and I and and and I congratulate you for also seeking to diversify um to other crops you know just because I mean COVID has taught us so much right not to be comfortable in a single crop because when one industry fails your whole business fails so how are you able to pick up and innovate as a farmer and grow and expand as a farmer but my advice to you would definitely say penetrate your market around herbs create a brand name for your herbs um before you go into sunflowers and make sure that you've got such solid clients that are procuring from you through the winter and the summer production season and once you start that sunflower um uh operation definitely be in touch with the marketers because uh grain crops or field crops is very different to vegetables and so the trading thereof is something that you also need to learn and I hope that you will have proper advisors and mentors around um your sunflower production the last point that I'm going to say is that also just ensure that with the other two hectares towards the river etc um speak to agronomists you know you could definitely work the soil and maybe put in a crop that um will do very well in that clay soil so do your soil test speak to an agronomist that someone that is very well recommended and they would give you advice in terms of what to do because obviously you know in farming you have to go big or go home at some point in state so obviously using the full potential of your land is is definitely beneficial to your business but thank you so much for your time and I hope you don't become a stranger to the podcast thank you so much Deverell that was Deverell Nechordi and we were speaking about her farm based in Broncospray I think Kalinin to be exact and she was telling us about her journey on farming niche crops uh specifically in this conversation it was herbs and she does a bit of um coriander rockets uh spring onion as well and mint she's got a few clients who are buying every single week she's selling to certain retailers but also to restaurants and she she started this business um in the midst of COVID and her business was also affected uh during COVID because most of a clientele could not operate during the lockdown levels if your if her story is not inspiring then I don't know what will inspire you because she's an epitome of a person a young female person rather who just went into the industry and went for it started um you know uh learned through trials and errors and was able to innovate and adapt through the challenges that we experience throughout the global pandemic if you enjoyed this episode please like and share to as many people as possible and continue to subscribe to the farming podcast brought to you by private property see you next time thank you so it's um so it's about like 500 to um one time so it's like a five