Growing up watching his mother run a successful crop farm in Bethlehem, Free State, inspired 27-year-old Lehlohonolo Phakoe to take the baton from her and continue the farming journey when academics proved challenging.
Phakoe’s mother single-handedly ran the farm from 2000, providing for the family. In 2017, after dropping out of the Glen Agricultural Training Institute near Bloemfontein, Phakoe and his mother agreed it was time for him to take over the business.
“I dropped out of college because I had to travel home every weekend to assist my mother at the farm as she was struggling, and that was strenuous for me… We agreed that I would drop out, and she mentored me,” he explained.
In 2019, Phakoe leased the farm from his mother for ten years after registering his farming business, Phakoe Lehlo Farm (Pty) Ltd. This also enabled him to apply for funding from the Land Bank to buy agricultural inputs and equipment. That same year, he began farming crops on 50 hectares of maize and 50 hectares of soya beans.
In 2023, the Free State Department of Agriculture and Land Reform invited emerging farmers to apply for a 30-year lease on a farm in Senekal, not far from his hometown. Phakoe successfully applied and secured the 714-hectare farm, which he operates alongside the one leased from his mother.
“In 2024, I was among farmers fortunate enough to have their lease agreements converted into title deeds by former Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza, because we did not owe the department any payments. I now own the land I farm on,” he said.
Across the two farms, Phakoe currently produces yellow maize, white maize, soya beans, and sunflower. He sells his crops to AFGRI, a leading agribusiness that supports farmers in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Mauritius, and Western Australia.
He is also part of the Land Bank Blended Finance Programme, a partnership between the Land Bank and the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development. The programme — 50% grant and 50% loan — is designed to help commercialise developing farmers, with the goal of increasing the participation of black producers and majority black-owned enterprises in agricultural value chains.
“I successfully applied for it in 2023, 2024, and 2025 to get agricultural inputs, implements, and equipment to enhance production on my farms,” he said.
So far, the business has created jobs for 14 local young people — nine permanent workers and five temporary workers.
In 2024, Phakoe won the Young Black Top Achiever of the Year Award under the commercial farmers’ category, as well as the Overall Achiever in the commercial category at the provincial agricultural awards ceremony — recognition he says proves he is on the right track.
Phakoe can be reached on email at lphakoe@icloud.com
For more information about the Land Bank visit www.landbank.co.za
Email
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp