The North-West University’s (NWU’s) subject group Crop Science, in partnership with the Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture, recently took final-year students on an excursion to Malelane in the Mpumalanga province for intensive physical training on commercial crop production and various crop processing technologies.

The Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture hosted the excursion and selected a variety of farms for the students to visit.

They included RCL Foods and TENBOSCH Farm which produces sugarcane, the Mdluli farm which produces tropical and subtropical fruit like avocados and pecan nuts, as well as Mpangane and Sons farm, which mainly produces macadamia nuts and vegetables such as green-beans and butternut.

Finally, they visited the Mathebula Farm that mainly produces subtropical fruit and root crops such as bananas and ginger.

Dr Mabuza Ntombifuthi from the subject group says they wanted to expose students to the entire agricultural process, including land preparation, herbicide and pesticide application, fertilisation, disease and pest control, harvesting, and storing and handling.

"It is important that students are exposed to real life commercial crop production and processing, as this will better prepare them if they want to pursue careers in commercial farming,” adds Dr Ntombifuthi.

Final-year students in the NWU’s subject group Crop Science recently visited various farms in Mpumalanga.

At the Mathebula farm students gained insight in banana production.

At the Mpangane and Sons farm students learned more about macadamia nut and cash crops production.