Boma

Three days where the food is actually grown

Boma is a Southern African food systems indaba, held on a working farm outside Bergville from 12 to 14 November 2026. No conference centre, no lanyards — every session runs in the open, between the lands and the shed.

See the programme

Three days

12 to 14 November 2026. Thursday coffee at seven, done by Saturday lunch.

Six countries

Growers and researchers from South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique.

One working farm

Thembalihle runs maize, dry beans and 140 head of cattle. Nothing is staged for us.

Every session outside

Under the gums, in the shed, on the contour. Bring a hat and boots that can get muddy.

The people who pitch the tent

Boma is run by six of us out of a farmhouse kitchen in the Okhahlamba district. We are two farmers, an extension officer, a seed custodian, a rangeland ecologist and one very patient bookkeeper. There is no communications department and there never will be. We started in 2019 because the food conferences we kept being invited to happened in Sandton, in air-conditioning, three hundred kilometres from anyone with soil under their nails. So we moved the argument onto a farm and let the farm set the agenda. The tent, the long tables and the fire are ours. The programme belongs to whoever turns up with something worth saying, which is why we cap the room at 140 people and read every application by hand.

Who is talking, and where they farm

Nomvula Mahlangu
Nomvula MahlanguSeed custodian · Bergville

Keeps 41 open-pollinated maize and bean lines alive in Okhahlamba and has been lending them out since 2004.

Dr Grace Chirwa
Dr Grace ChirwaSoil scientist · Lilongwe

Runs the long-term tillage trials at Bunda. Will tell you, politely, that your compost is not compost.

Karabo Sithole
Karabo SitholeFarmer trainer · Maseru

Trains about 300 homestead growers a year and thinks most training is a waste of everyone's diesel.

Tendai Mukwesha
Tendai MukweshaMarket gardener · Harare

Supplies fourteen restaurants off two hectares in Mount Pleasant. Talks about pricing without apologising for it.

Anneke du Toit
Anneke du ToitGrain farmer · Reitz

Fourth generation, 620 hectares, six seasons no-till. Brings the spreadsheets and the failures.

Chikondi Banda
Chikondi BandaExtension officer · Chipata

Twenty-two years in Zambian extension. Argues that the last mile is the only mile that has ever mattered.

Zolani Damane
Zolani DamaneRangeland ecologist · Tsolo

Works with communal grazing associations on rotational herding and the paperwork that keeps it standing.

Rui Machava
Rui MachavaCassava breeder · Nampula

Twelve years breeding cassava for sandy northern soils. Brings cuttings rather than slides.

Three days, one programme

Sessions start at seven while it is still cool and stop when the light goes. Meals come off the fire, cooked by the Emmaus catering group. Nothing is streamed, nothing is recorded, and there is no exhibition hall.

Day one · 12 Nov

07:00 Coffee at the shed, boots on

08:00 Walk the contour with Anneke du Toit

10:00 What a seed bank actually costs to run — Nomvula Mahlangu

12:30 Lunch under the gums

14:00 Soil carbon: six seasons of numbers, no promises

16:00 Open floor. Bring one problem

18:30 Fire, and the Emmaus choir

Day two · 13 Nov

06:30 Milking, for whoever is awake

08:00 Pricing without apologising — Tendai Mukwesha

10:00 Cassava for sandy ground — Rui Machava

12:30 Lunch

14:00 The last mile is the only mile — Chikondi Banda

16:00 Three farm walks, pick one

19:00 Braai, long tables, no seating plan

Day three · 14 Nov

07:00 Coffee

08:00 Rotational herding on communal land — Zolani Damane

10:00 What we will each do differently by March

12:00 Lunch and strike the tent

13:30 Seed swap at the shed door

15:00 Lifts to Ladysmith and Estcourt

Boma 2026 is capped at 140 people

Applications close 30 September, or when the tent is full, whichever comes first. R1 950 covers three days, every meal and a bed in the shed dorm. Twenty subsidised places are held for smallholder growers.

Register

Apply for a place

Tell us who you are and what you grow, sell, teach or study. We read every application ourselves and answer within a week.