The AF4RICA Lab is operated via a partnership agreement between Enterprises University of Pretoria and Life AgriScience. The joint skills set of these two entities ensures a unique value proposition for our clients and the market in general.
Enterprises UP ensures that the Lab’s outputs are scientifically sound whilst Life AgriScience’s integrated laboratory management process/approach ensures professionalism across sample management, analytical work and client service and engagement.
AF4RICA Lab focusses on analysing all the natural resources (soil, water and vegetation) that drives agroecosystem functions. Our current clients include mining companies i.e Seriti, Thungela, Anglo American, Glencore, South 32, Valterra, De Beers; and livestock farmers and agricultural research organisations and Universities i.e ARC, CSIR, UNISA, UP, UKZN, NWU and we expect to grow the Labs’s service offering to include all carbon and nutrient analyses of plants and soils.
Despite the Lab being equipped with state-of-the-art technology to ensure quick turnaround time it still has the scalability to conduct unique field sampling and processing.
The Lab is well resourced and has a Laboratory manager and various lab technicians, in-house Soil, Pasture, Agronomy, Land Rehabilitation and Environmental Specialists.
Meet the team
Prof Wayne Truter
Founder and Specialist Advisor
Prof Truter is the visionary, whose leadership brought Af4rica Lab into existence. His professional experience entails land (Degraded or mined agricultural land) regeneration planning and management, with particular emphasis on understanding the interrelationships of the soil, grasses, legumes, water and livestock and game. His specialization focuses on establishing the most sustainable, economical and practically feasible regenerative land use management system in disturbed environments. This includes forage and pasture management as an important component of a fodder flow programme. Since forage and pasture are integral to understanding these processes, it only makes sense that it has to be qualified thoroughly. This led to the birth of Af4rica Lab.
Makda Mahrai
Laboratory Manager
Makda Mahrai is the laboratory manager at Af4rica lab and a PhD candidate in Land rehabilitation at the University of the Free State.
Her daily work is turning plant and feed samples into numbers that people can act on. She runs the laboratory day to day activities, coordinating sample flow from intake to reported result, supervising and training laboratory staff. She oversees the analytical equipment and the quality systems behind every result. Her guiding principle is simple: a forage laboratory earns its reputation sample by sample.
Makda brings a genuinely multidisciplinary foundation to this work, with formal training spanning animal science, crop science, and pasture science. She holds an MSc in Pasture Science and a BSc (Hons) in Crop Science from the University of Pretoria, and a BSc in Animal Science from Asmara University, Eritrea.
Outside the laboratory she is usually outdoors hiking and sightseeing.
Wandiswa Buthelezi
Lab Technician
A Geography graduate who holds a Bachelor of Science (General) and a Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Geography from the University of Mpumalanga. She has a strong interest in environmental sustainability, agriculture, natural resource management, and geospatial science. At Life Agriscience, Wandiswa contributes to agricultural research by assisting with plant and soil research activities, forage quality analysis, laboratory sample preparation, and environmental data collection. Her responsibilities include measuring plant growth, preparing samples for laboratory analysis, conducting fibre and digestibility analyses, and recording research data to support scientific research projects.
Her academic background has provided her with knowledge of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, spatial analysis, environmental processes, and research methodologies. Her practical experience at Life Agriscience has further strengthened her laboratory, research, analytical, and problem-solving skills. Wandiswa is passionate about continuous learning and is committed to applying scientific knowledge to advance sustainable agriculture, environmental conservation, and innovative research. She aspires to build a career at the intersection of agriculture, environmental science, and research, contributing to the development of sustainable solutions that benefit both people and the environment.
Gelene Beukes
Lab Technician
Gelene Beukes is an MSc Grassland Science student at the University of the Free State and a volunteer at Life AgriScience, where she contributes to plant and pasture research through field trials, laboratory forage analyses, and data collection. She holds a BSc in Animal Science from the University of Pretoria and is passionate about sustainable agriculture and bridging the gap between scientific research and practical farming. Driven by curiosity, Gelene enjoys working outdoors and values continuous learning, collaboration, and finding practical solutions to agricultural challenges. Her goal is to contribute to a more productive and sustainable agricultural industry in South Africa.
Elrica de Necker
Soil / Agronomy Specialist
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