About Us
At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, KSFI founders Liza Lightfoot, Mpumelelo Ncwadi and Asanda Apleni, saw an opportunity to train EC youth in agroecological ways to farm and deliver food security to those who need it most: rural households.
KSFI’s 23 hectare demonstration farm is the training and research hub of all we teach and mentor. We trial various systems of farming to home in the best practices in crop farming, livestock, piggery, chicken farming, and beekeeping while meeting the South African Organic Standards for Agroecology. We are a certified organic farm. Coaching in financial management, sales, marketing, merchandising and compliance are the primary focus of all we teach. With the focus on hands-on agriculture education and training, KSFI is uniquely positioned to serve this need because we are targeting freshly produced high value crops utilizing agroecological methods, currently underserved young and rural community farmers with small scale farmland. Our goal is to give a hand up to market gardeners wanting to enter the food system. KSFI is an evolving story of innovation, adaptation and evolution.
Our Model
Our model presents the following opportunities for rural communities.
- Entrepreneurial training and job creation
- Efficient food security
- Access to markets through our business Aggregator
- On going mentorship and coaching
- Access to a network of entities working to build a reliable and profitable agricultural landscape in South Africa
Meet Our Team
Sisanda Vuso
School Garden FacilitatorSisanda Vuso is an agriculture graduate from Fort Cox Agriculture and Forestry Training Institute, with a background in Crop Production and Horticulture. She is passionate about agricultural education, community development and empowering young people through practical, hands-on learning.
Sisanda Vuso
School Garden Facilitator
Funda Takane
Youth Garden Facilitator
Funda Takane
Youth Garden Facilitator
Ndikho Kiva
Livestock & Farm ManagerA dedicated and results-driven Farm Manager with a Diploma in Agri-Business and five years of experience in the agricultural sector. Experience in maintaining good farming practices, managing animal health and welfare, and carrying out administrative responsibilities. Skilled in marketing, training, and facilitation, with strong communication, leadership, and organisational abilities. A hard working and adaptable professional who is committed to improving farm productivity, maintaining high standards, achieving sustainable outcomes.
Ndikho Kiva
Livestock & Farm Manager
Mbalentle Kilani
Administration
Mbalentle Kilani
Administration
Kanyisa Deliwe
Crop ManagerKanyisa Deliwe is a farmer, mentor, and activist for sustainable food systems. He studied Crop Production at Fort Cox Agriculture and Forestry Training Institute and later became an AgriSETA beneficiary intern, supporting student field practicals after theory. He completed a course in Market Gardening, and graduated through the KSFI training system. Kanyisa has developed and managed projects in vermiculture, organic seedlings, biofertilizers, and beekeeping, all grounded in the principles of agroecology. As Crop Production Manager of KSFI, he facilitates practical training for local and international students from agricultural nstitutions
Kanyisa Deliwe
Crop Manager
Asanda Apleni
Founder, Board MemberBoard Member, Founder, Student Facilitator As the Student Facilitator, Asanda is responsible for designing and supervising student workshops and training, monitoring, and overseeing field reports and research projects. Asanda Apleni is KSFI’s Learning Coordinator. She plans, designs, implements and supervises educational programmes, including coordination and monitoring of student workshops and training courses. She also oversees field reports and research projects. Her background includes a Masters degree, a M.Sc. in Agriculture Economics. She is the Chief Operating Officer, and she manages the Community Outreach Division of KSFI.
Asanda Apleni
Founder, Board Member
Liza Lightfoot
Founder, Board MemberBoard Members, Founder, Chief Executive Officer Liza Lightfoot, who co-founded Kidlinks Small Farm Incubator (KSFI) with Mpumelelo Ncwadi and Asanda Apleni in 2020, is 'The Matriarch,' Chief Executive Officer of KSFI, and Ex Officio member of its Board of Directors. Her role is to manage the organization and to implement its business strategy, once approved by the Board. Liza brings to the role experience and operational skills in business start-up, management and governance.
Liza Lightfoot
Founder, Board Member
Founders
Asanda Apleni
Founder, Board MemberBoard Member, Founder, Student Facilitator As the Student Facilitator, Asanda is responsible for designing and supervising student workshops and training, monitoring, and overseeing field reports and research projects. Asanda Apleni is KSFI’s Learning Coordinator. She plans, designs, implements and supervises educational programmes, including coordination and monitoring of student workshops and training courses. She also oversees field reports and research projects. Her background includes a Masters degree, a M.Sc. in Agriculture Economics. She is the Chief Operating Officer, and she manages the Community Outreach Division of KSFI.
Asanda Apleni
Founder, Board Member
Liza Lightfoot
Founder, Board MemberBoard Members, Founder, Chief Executive Officer Liza Lightfoot, who co-founded Kidlinks Small Farm Incubator (KSFI) with Mpumelelo Ncwadi and Asanda Apleni in 2020, is 'The Matriarch,' Chief Executive Officer of KSFI, and Ex Officio member of its Board of Directors. Her role is to manage the organization and to implement its business strategy, once approved by the Board. Liza brings to the role experience and operational skills in business start-up, management and governance.
Liza Lightfoot
Founder, Board Member
Mpumelelo Ncwadi
FounderChief Impact Officer,Founder, Spiritual Leader Mpumelelo Ncwadi is the Chief Thinkering Officer, Intellectual Architect and Spiritual Leader of KSFI. His role is to promote creative thinking and discovery through learning by doing. He is a storyteller, wayfinder and forward thinker. He co-founded KSFI to be a catalyst for radical and practical change that creates resilience. Mpumelelo is a certified grazing instructor by the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers.
Mpumelelo Ncwadi
Founder
Board Members
Kanyisa Deliwe
Crop ManagerKanyisa Deliwe is a farmer, mentor, and activist for sustainable food systems. He studied Crop Production at Fort Cox Agriculture and Forestry Training Institute and later became an AgriSETA beneficiary intern, supporting student field practicals after theory. He completed a course in Market Gardening, and graduated through the KSFI training system. Kanyisa has developed and managed projects in vermiculture, organic seedlings, biofertilizers, and beekeeping, all grounded in the principles of agroecology. As Crop Production Manager of KSFI, he facilitates practical training for local and international students from agricultural nstitutions
Kanyisa Deliwe
Crop Manager
Valerie Stull
Board MemberValerie Stull joined McKnight as senior program officer with the Global Collaboration for Resilient Food Systems in May 2026. In this role, Valerie helps guide the Foundation’s work to transform global food systems. She oversees and develops grant portfolios that support efforts to build power through transformative partnerships, aligning McKnight’s work to cultivate resilient food systems with our climate and equity goals. Valerie’s career has centered on the intersection of climate change, agriculture, and planetary health. Prior to joining McKnight, she served as a faculty associate and research scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she led diverse scholarship on soil health, food security and sovereignty, climate change and human health, gender, farmer well-being, and alternative proteins. Her mixed-methods research and programmatic work have spanned Southern and Eastern Africa, India, Latin America, and the Middle East, with support from the USDA, USAID, and a Fulbright award. She has experience with qualitative social science, farmer field experiments, laboratory methods, clinical trials, and modeling. Valerie is dedicated to advancing agroecology and approaches that optimize circular economies, including innovative research on utilizing insects to recycle organic waste and enhance global nutrition. In 2014, she co-founded a collaborative international research initiative—now a small solutions-oriented nonprofit—that supports rural women farmers in Zambia and Rwanda to build agricultural resilience and improve livelihoods. Valerie has a PhD from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and holds a Master of Public Health from Kansas State University. She has been recognized with a national Agriculture Innovation Prize for her work in sustainable food systems and continues to advocate for science-driven, community-centered solutions to complex global environmental health challenges. Outside of the office, Valerie enjoys hiking in the Colorado Rockies, dabbling in poetry, sipping warm beverages, and family dance parties in the kitchen. An avid supporter of the circular economy at home, she also farms insects to feed her backyard chickens.
Valerie Stull
Board Member
Dr Michael Bell
Board MemberBoard Members, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison US. Scholar, author, composer
Dr Michael Bell
Board Member
Wanda Shuenyane
Founder and CEO of Sceptre Holdings (Pty) LtdSerial entrepreneur with extensive experience in building successful businesses in marketing, financial and recycling sectors.
Wanda Shuenyane
Founder and CEO of Sceptre Holdings (Pty) Ltd
Asanda Apleni
Founder, Board MemberBoard Member, Founder, Student Facilitator As the Student Facilitator, Asanda is responsible for designing and supervising student workshops and training, monitoring, and overseeing field reports and research projects. Asanda Apleni is KSFI’s Learning Coordinator. She plans, designs, implements and supervises educational programmes, including coordination and monitoring of student workshops and training courses. She also oversees field reports and research projects. Her background includes a Masters degree, a M.Sc. in Agriculture Economics. She is the Chief Operating Officer, and she manages the Community Outreach Division of KSFI.
Asanda Apleni
Founder, Board Member
Liza Lightfoot
Founder, Board MemberBoard Members, Founder, Chief Executive Officer Liza Lightfoot, who co-founded Kidlinks Small Farm Incubator (KSFI) with Mpumelelo Ncwadi and Asanda Apleni in 2020, is 'The Matriarch,' Chief Executive Officer of KSFI, and Ex Officio member of its Board of Directors. Her role is to manage the organization and to implement its business strategy, once approved by the Board. Liza brings to the role experience and operational skills in business start-up, management and governance.
Liza Lightfoot
Founder, Board Member
Advisory Board
Moss Kadey
Advisory Board MemberAdvisory Board Member, Board Trustee Kadey Charitable Trust, CEO and Founder Mossco Capital Inc Experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the venture capital and private equity industry.
Moss Kadey
Advisory Board Member
Xolewa Koncoshe
Advisory Board MemberAdvisory Board Member,Founder of Ncera Information Resource Centre I am Xolelwa Koncoshe an Agroecology farmer, founder of Ncera Information Resource Centre, Ncera Small Scale Farmers Foundation, Senjenje Multipurpose Cooperative and Managing Director of Isithembiso Multipurpose Organization. I am passionate about climate change and mitigation strategies of which Agroecology is one form of farming that guarantees sustainable food system without compromising the environment. Creation is teaming with diversity and humans included, when we embrace it we can make the world a better place not only today but for the generations to come hence I believe so much in collaborations.
Xolewa Koncoshe
Advisory Board Member
Desiree Brouwer
Advisory Board MemberAdvisory Board Member, Co-founder of NONZēRO Africa Brings a can-do mentality and a hands-on approach to every individual and organization she work with.
Desiree Brouwer
Advisory Board Member
Chief Makinana of the Gompo Chiefdom
Advisory Board MemberAdvisory Board Member, Member of the Royal Family, Traditional Leadership and AmaRharhabe Kingdom Member of Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA), Chairperson of Buffalo City Metro Branch and a member of Provincial Executive Committee (PEC)
Chief Makinana of the Gompo Chiefdom
Advisory Board Member
Tafa Saneliese
Board MemberBoard Member, Graduate of Fort Hare University. Economist Inspires and challenges young minds
Tafa Saneliese
Board Member
Mpumelelo Ncwadi
FounderChief Impact Officer,Founder, Spiritual Leader Mpumelelo Ncwadi is the Chief Thinkering Officer, Intellectual Architect and Spiritual Leader of KSFI. His role is to promote creative thinking and discovery through learning by doing. He is a storyteller, wayfinder and forward thinker. He co-founded KSFI to be a catalyst for radical and practical change that creates resilience. Mpumelelo is a certified grazing instructor by the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers.
Mpumelelo Ncwadi
Founder
