Macadamia grower and nurseryman Org Lindeque (37), from Anro Farm at Kaapsehoop was recently chosen as the 2022 Mpumalanga Young Farmer of the Year winner by the Agricultural Writers of South Africa.
Lucentlands recently visited Lindeque at ANRO Farms and Macadamia Nursery and found him hard at work in the ANRO Macadamia nursery.
Org farms with macadamias on the rolling hills in the Barberton Valley near Kaapsehoop. In chatting to him, it soon became clear from his ingenuity and entrepreneurial drive why he was chosen as the winner of the Young Farmer of the Year in Mpumalanga. Org and his wife Anneri have been farming on her family’s farm for some years and produce 65 hectares of macadamias. The farm has 58 employees and produces, and packs dried, nut in shell macadamias for the export market.”
ANRO Farms and Macadamia Nursery
The idea of the ANRO macadamia nursery was born from the need to access more seedlings for them to plant on the farm. There were several connected growing tunnels on the farm that had previously been used for to produce vegetables, and in 2019 Org and his father-in-law decided to convert these into a macadamia tree nursery. The nursery has grown very successfully and is registered with SAMAC as an accredited macadamia nursery. ANRO Nursery currently produces approximately 300 000 seedlings annually which are sold throughout South Africa.
The macadamia nursery
In the pursuit of excellence and sustainability, ANRO Nursery has moved away from the use of traditional plastic seedling bags and is using Ellepot organic biodegradable paper seedling bags for their young trees. To learn more about the Ellepot bagging system, Org travelled to Denmark to visit the Ellepot factory, and he has bought an Ellepot bagging machine for Anro Nursery. He also realised that they would ideally need Ellepot bags with a wider diameter that the ones that were available, so he arranged for the Ellepot factory to custom make the machine with the ability to produce a wider bag.
During a tour of the nursery, Org explained it takes nine to ten months for the germinated nut seeds to grow sufficiently to plant them out. It was also fascinating to watch the nursery workers at as they grafted popular macadamia varieties onto disease resistant rootstocks.
Org is as modest as he is driven. In response to how it came about that he entered the competition, Org laughed and said that initially he was not even aware of this competition, but that SAMAC Operations Manager Jurita van Zyl told him about the competition and suggested that he should enter. “For me, the pleasure of farming is sufficient reward for my efforts,” explains Org. “It was truly a privilege to be chosen for this accolade as I had not expectations of winning.”
As the Mpumalanga provincial winner in the Young Farmer of the Year competition, Org will now be a finalist in the national Agri SA young farmer of the Year competition, along with the provincial winners from eight other provinces.
Here’s wishing you the very best of luck in the National Competition Org!
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