Green Master Vegetables Business Plan — Water: The Binding Constraint
Why water allocation, not land, sets the ceiling on hectares under production, and how the plan secures and schedules it.
Water: The Binding Constraint
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- Overview & contents
- i. Important Notice
- 1. Executive Summary
- 2. Why Limpopo
- 3. The Market and the Commission Problem
- 4. Water: The Binding Constraint
- 5. Open Field Versus Tunnels
- 6. Crop Plan and Rotation
- 7. SWOT and Competitive Position
- 8. Route to Market
- 9. Unit Economics
- 10. The Five-Year Build and Its Gates
- 11. Funding
- 12. People and Operations
- 13. Certification and Compliance
- 14. Financial Projections
- 15. Break-Even
- 16. Sensitivity and Scenarios
- 17. Risk Management
- 18. Implementation Timeline
- 19. Returns
- 20. Key Performance Indicators
- 21. Key Assumptions
- 22. Conclusion
- A. Appendix A: Consolidated Financial Summary
- B. Appendix B: Capital Schedules
- C. Appendix C: Funding and Debt Schedules
- D. Appendix D: Risk Register
- E. Appendix E: Glossary
A vegetable farm without secure water is not a farm. Everything in this plan assumes a lawful, adequate and reliable water supply, and that assumption must be verified before any other commitment is made.
- A water use authorisation is required. Taking water for irrigation from a borehole, river or scheme is regulated under the National Water Act. Existing lawful use, a general authorisation or a full water use licence may apply depending on volume and source. This must be established in writing before land is leased.
- Verify the yield, not the existence, of a borehole. A borehole that delivers in March may not deliver in September. Insist on a pump test and a hydrogeologist’s report covering seasonal yield, not a driller’s word.
- Drip irrigation throughout, not overhead. Drip delivers water to the root zone, cuts evaporation losses, reduces foliar disease and allows fertigation. The plan funds drip from the first hectare.
- Storage buffers supply interruption. A lined dam or tanks holding several days of demand converts a pump failure from a crop loss into an inconvenience.
- Measure and manage. CSIR precision-agriculture deployments across 8 500 hectares in Limpopo and Mpumalanga delivered a 24 per cent reduction in irrigation water use. Soil moisture probes cost little and pay back in both water and yield.
|
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
Year 4 |
Year 5 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Hectares under production |
8.0 |
14.5 |
24.0 |
34.5 |
45.0 |
|
Water and pumping, R’000 |
104 |
213 |
397 |
622 |
884 |
|
As a share of net revenue |
5.1% |
5.0% |
4.6% |
4.4% |
4.2% |
|
Per hectare, R |
13 000 |
14 690 |
16 542 |
18 029 |
19 644 |
4.1 The water plan by stage
|
Stage |
Requirement |
Evidence needed before proceeding |
|---|---|---|
|
Before the lease |
Water use authorisation established for the intended volume and source |
Written confirmation of existing lawful use, general authorisation or a licence |
|
Before Year 1 planting |
Borehole yield proven in the dry season |
Pump test and hydrogeologist’s report covering seasonal yield, not peak yield |
|
Year 1 infrastructure |
Borehole, pump, storage dam lining and mainline; drip across 8 hectares |
R1.30m of the Year 1 capital budget — the single largest category |
|
Before Year 3 expansion |
Water confirmed for 35 hectares |
A Year 3 gate condition; written and independently assessed |
|
Year 3 to Year 5 |
Irrigation extension and pump upgrade in each year; storage expanded in Year 5 |
R1.85m across the three years |
|
Before Year 5 expansion |
Water confirmed for the full 45 hectares |
A Year 5 gate condition |
|
Throughout |
Soil moisture probes and recorded water use per hectare |
The metric that turns a 24 per cent saving from a study into a saving on this farm |
Water infrastructure is R2.10 million of the R11.11 million capitalised, or 18.9 per cent, and it is the category on which no economy should be attempted. A borehole that cost R100 000 less and delivers 20 per cent less in September has destroyed far more value than it saved.