The Department of Agriculture at North-West University is filled with passionate women who strive to improve the future of agriculture and pass on their knowledge to equally passionate students.

Nomali Ngobese is an Associate Professor at the Potchefstroom campus and believes that agriculture is one of the most important disciplines because it contributes to some of the most important life aspects, like food production, animal feed, raw materials for making chemicals, and building infrastructure.

Her agricultural journey started at a young age when she joined her grandparents on their farm in KwaZulu-Natal. During her school years, she grew passionate about biology, more specifically, plant biology. She followed this passion and in her undergraduate years had an inkling towards plant conservation. She went on to complete her postgraduate degree in plant conservation and later diverted into agriculture as a way to work in the field.

While studying she assisted lecturers with student training and, this is where she realised that she had not only a passion for plants but to teach others about plants.

“Interacting with students enticed me quite a bit, I liked it, so when I got onto postgraduate studies, I ended up taking more and more responsibilities in that direction, which developed my skills in teaching. Eventually, it became an obvious choice for me to become an academic. I love teaching because it has become who I am.”

Nomali’s role as Associate Professor has many dimensions, spanning from departmental to university level. She is an Agronomy and Plant Physiology lecturer, and researcher and participates in various levels with administration duties.

To ensure these roles are successfully filled, she has a strong team of women to support her. These women are:

Carina van der Merwe is the departmental administrator.

Carina explains that she assists by procuring the materials needed for research trials, arranging important events and supporting the students with their needs. She also grew up with a grandfather who worked for the Agricultural College and a father who worked with crop insurance.

She believes there is very little that women cannot achieve and believes that there is a big role for women to play in the agricultural sector.

“It is important for women to become independent and know that they can provide for their people and their country by joining the agricultural industry,” she explains.

The third woman in this dynamic team is Dorcus Maja, a Technician in the Agricultural Department who ensures that students receive hands-on experience as part of their training.

“I am here to close the gap between theory and practicals and give the students a real-world agricultural experience,” she explains.

She also grew up surrounded by family in agriculture. Her passion for this profession drives her to do research and better herself and the industry continuously. She is currently working on research on why the consumption of indigenous leafy greens is so low and is working towards completing her Ph.D. studies.

“I love my job. I am one of the few women in the industry. I  interact with students on different academic levels and from different backgrounds. I just love seeing the joy of my female students when they see I am a female technician doing what they want to do one day.”

In her position, working with stakeholders is very important. She believes the collaboration with Kynoch allows the department the opportunity to promote agricultural practices and to increase the activities of women participating in agriculture.

“They give us a platform to engage further and have projects in different regions of the country,” she adds.

Completing the team is Sbonile Xaba who just absolutely loves planting. Sbonile is a master’s degree student working on a project based on improving the water efficiency of potatoes using cover crops and managing nitrogen fertiliser.

Since she was a child, she always felt a connection with the soil. She noticed the positive impact that sustainable farming practices and innovation can make and decided that she wanted to be part of that future.

“I see the future of agriculture evolving rapidly, as we are working towards sustainability, as well as climate resilience. We face challenges of climate change, lack of soil health and lack of water. I saw an opportunity to introduce sustainable practices through cover crops to try and combat these challenges.

“I am so comfortable as a woman in agriculture, and I see a lot of women moving into the industry. It empowers me to work harder.”

Nomali’s trials

Just like the women in her team, Nomali also dreams of changing the face of farming. The trials she plants focus on developing new agronomic practices and adopting already established agronomic practices to optimise yields and nutritional quality. While these trials are mainly done on maize and potatoes, Nomali also works with underutilised, unpopular crops, where she develops cultivation practices for these crops and incorporates them into mainstream agriculture. There are currently no established guidelines for fertilizer application rates, planting dates, or temperature specifications for these crops.

She explains that she studied with some of the Kynoch agronomists and in their department, they have trained some of them as students. This makes their collaboration with Kynoch come naturally.

“We get support from Kynoch in terms of fertiliser and advice in the application of their products.”

She applies this support to her undergraduate students during the practicals to test things like new fertilisers launched and teach about different application rates and products that are available.

“This collaboration allows me to teach my students using the most recent products. This usually excites my students because they want to work with the latest technologies in the field,” she explains.

Nomali would like to be remembered for her contributions in developing new agronomic practices for popular crops towards sustainable production as well as the incorporation of unpopular crops into the mainstream agricultural system.