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| Einstein Sibanda in his chicken shed at the Rocklands Farm. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks |
Einstein Sibanda is a poultry farmer in Rocklands,
Simonstown and owns a business called Hands-on Entrepreneur. He has 1700
chickens on the two-hectare free-range farm and produces 1600 eggs per day,
inspiring the catchy produce name, ‘Einstein’s Eggs’.
Originally from Zimbabwe, Einstein moved to South Africa in
2006 and studied Agriculture in order to upskill himself in the farming sector,
spending three years at Living Hope (an umbrella of ministry projects engaged
in various forms of community service).
“Where I come from, people engage in agriculture only for
family use, not really for commercial purposes. After finishing my schooling, I
decided to take agriculture further and make it my career,” Einstein said.
“At Living Hope, I grew tomatoes and was also involved in
chicken farming, which I then decided to take further.”
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| The free range chicken farm in Simon’s Town. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks |
“I rented a farm closer to Living Hope in Solole, that was previously used as an animal zoo, in order to start up my poultry farming business, but after some time, the council bought the land and I needed to find another place to farm.”
“In December 2015, I found the land in Rocklands that I am
currently farming from and the owners agreed to my proposal of farming on the
land as it was not being used at the time. The farm had previously been used
for piggery and dairy farming.”
Einstein collects around 1600 eggs from the chickens each
day. He then supplies these eggs to the local community, restaurants, and any
interested parties wanting to buy his eggs. He also sells individual chickens.
“The difference between free-range poultry farming and other
forms of poultry farming is that we do not keep the chickens in cages and let
them run freely, touching and pecking at whatever they please within that safe,
spacious enclosure.”
“We do not use any forms of science when it comes to the
grooming of the chickens and raise them in the most natural way possible, we
realise that using chemicals is damaging to the eco-environment, so we don’t
spray the eggs with any of those substances.”
Special care is also paid to the types of foods that the
chickens eat.
“A lot of time and money is spent in giving free-range
chickens special feed. We also let them peck at the soil and eat the worms
found in there which are filled with proteins that are good for the chickens.”
People come from far and wide in order to get a taste of
Einstein’s organic eggs, as local musician, Nhoza Sitsholwana, who had popped
in for a tray or two, enthused.
“It’s amazing what Einstein is doing here. If you’re in a
small town like Port St Johns, where I’m from, it’s hard to get any supplies
and you have to travel very far, sometimes as far as Umtata, unless you have a
little farm of your own.”
“People are not really that aware of what they can do to
produce more food for themselves. It’s good to teach people what they can do to
produce their own foods.”
Einstein believes that farming is great for the
eco-environment and important an important skillset for anyone, including the
youth, to learn.
“Farming is not only for old people, young people can also
engage in agriculture, appreciating nature and the fact that what they are eating
was produced by soil they ploughed themselves. It can also be a great source of
employment for the youth.”
Einstein’s words of inspiration for the youth: “Young people should dream big, but also take the actions needed in order to make those dreams a reality. It’s all about action and doing!”
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