Ginger: a challenging crop, but well worth the effort

South Africa’s booming macadamia industry has presented an interesting opportunity for growers of the crop to cultivate ginger. Since both crops demand the same climate, and macadamia trees take five years before they are in production, the rows between the trees offer an ideal space during this period to plant ginger.

This is what led Jaco Lubbe near Kiepersol, Mpumalanga, to take up growing a crop that he well knew was difficult. His father, Japie, was one of the first ginger producers in South Africa and first planted the crop some 20 years ago, but then gave up cultivating it.

“Ginger is a very intensive operation, so it takes up a lot of time. My father felt that the other crops on the farm needed more attention, so he stopped planting it,” says Lubbe.

“About five years ago, we decided to start growing ginger again because we needed the cash flow while waiting for our macadamias to come into production. Initially, we planted it between the macadamias as we had