A rare vegetable

Okra could be useful to farmers in torrid areas with a good water supply, said Hennie Nel of Hoedspruit. However, he added, the market was prone to over-supply, which put downward pressure on prices.

Nel grows cotton, sugar beans and canning tomatoes on two farms totalling 115ha.

“Because it is too hot here in summer to grow beans and tomatoes, I had to look around for something to take their place until the end of summer,’’ says Nel.

He originally tried chillies during the hottest months but later changed to okra on the suggestion of a friend.

“It’s just as well I did,” he says. “I found okra brings in more money than chillies on a smaller piece of ground, as long as I’m very careful about how much I market at a time.

“I cannot stress too much how small the okra market is. If a few boxes too many arrive on the Johannesburg and Pretoria fresh produce markets, the price really plummets, and because okra does not keep well after harvest, it is impossible to market farther afield,” he says.

It is for this reason that he grows only 4ha a year in two plantings of 2ha each, two months apart.

Because okra is such a rare vegetable, Nel originally had trouble getting the seed, but he eventually solved this problem by importing it from America. Despite its love of extreme heat, okra needs plenty of water, so it’s just as well Nel’s farms are sprinkle-irrigated.