Providing an online market-place for emerging farmers – Zamokhule Thwala, Agricool CEO

Learning from personal experience just how hard it is for a small-scale farmer to secure funding to start and grow a business in SA, Kwazulu-Natal based Zamokhuhle Thwala set up Agricool, an online market place that links smallholder farmers and buyers to markets. Thwala has just been awarded the joint first prize in this year’s SAB Foundation Annual Social Innovation Awards, for which he received R1.3 million in grant funding and business support.  A total of R12.6 million was given away to 17 finalists. This is one of many prizes that Agricool has recently won, owing to the social impact of their business model. He told BizNews how the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns forced him to new thinking - opening new business avenues. Thwala also mentioned that he wanted to make farming cool to a new generation of farmers and that he thinks women make better farmers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices