Growing success for a small-scale wattle farmer
It’s not easy to pin down Mthandeni Ntanzi for an interview. That he is clearly a busy, hands-on farmer with little free time is evinced by his neat and well-tended homestead surrounded by 4,5ha of well-managed black wattle (Acacia mearnsii). And it is precisely for his strong work ethic and resourcefulness that Ntanzi was named NCT Forestry Co-operative’s 2019 Tree Farmer of the Year in the small-scale grower category.
Ntanzi is a fourth-generation resident of his family’s 5ha smallholding on KwaCele Traditional Authority land in KwaZulu-Natal’s eMatimatolo area. Like his great-grandfather, grandfather and father before him, Ntanzi grows black wattle for commercial purposes. However, unlike his forebears, he has made the trees his primary income source and so dedicates almost all of his time, efforts and resources into producing the best-quality black wattle bark
