In October this year, Hemp Africa SA, in partnership with a group of 54 previously disadvantaged farmers from the Gouda Farmers' Association, launched a research and development hemp project on 0,5ha of land belonging to the Gouda community trust.
If all works out, the partnership hopes to turn Gouda in the Western Cape into South Africa's hemp-producing hub.
“Our vision is to put 10 000ha under hemp production over the next five to 10 years and to then run the project like a kibbutz, which we want to call Mega Pharm. The idea is for two to three farmers to be responsible for growing 1 000ha each,“ explains Nicole Pryor, Hemp Africa SA's secretary.
While the initial plan is to sell the raw product to off-takers, they also plan to later create a co-operative and processing facility where value can be added to the raw material by workers from the community.
The big drive behind the project is to eradicate poverty
