MEC Pieters wants OR Tambo farmers to benefit from exporting livestock
Her love for agriculture, interest to produce food for her late husband, seven children inspired Nowandile Mbana, 60, a widow from Mafini village outside Libode to start sheep farming, produce vegetables, juicy and tasty oranges, nartjies, mangoes and guava fruits.
Mbana is one of many OR Tambo sheep farmers that received 144 Dohne Merino rams with superior genetics from the Eastern Cape Rural Development and Agrarian Reform MEC Nonkqubela Pieters.
With 14 sheep in her kraal, Mbana said before getting the Dohne Merino ram from MEC Pieters her flock was full of nondescript rams and ewes that limited quality of her wool clip, reduced the amount of money she gets from wool sales.
Mbana said she makes money from her sheep farming enterprise by selling her hammels to local buyers for slaughtering, shears wool to sell to the wool market.
"The Dohne Merino ram I got from the Department will improve the genetics of my flock from nondescript to a better quality than that I had before. It will change my breed. I got excited and happy because it feels like God has blessed me. I say so because acquiring this ram has been one of my desires because my flock was nondescript," she said.
Mbana said she expects the ram to mate with her ewes to produce a flock of lambs with superior genetics that will help expand her farming enterprise and increase her profit margins. Apart from spending time tending to her flock, garden with attractive fruit trees, Mbana has 8 grandchildren that depend on the success of her business.
This handover of Dohne Merino rams is part of the ongoing programmes of the Department to commercialise agriculture in the province with a special focus on farmers in communal land, smallholding farms, farmers who received farms through government's land reform programmes and other previously disadvantaged farmers.
One of the farmers who received rams, Papama Madyibi from Vidgiesville outside Mthatha said their cooperative applied for the rams in response to the Department's call to farmers to submit applications for support.
"To us as emerging farmers getting these rams will bring a huge difference to our farming business because we have nondescript sheep. By mating them with these rams we will see the difference. Some local farmers had these rams and we see the quality of their lambs. We are confident that the rams we are getting from DRDAR will make a difference," said Madyibi.
Hoping to fetch better income from wool sales in future, Madyibi said to sustain effective mating for rams, they will focus on grass and grain feeding, providing medicines and keep rams separate from ewes until the mating season.
In another case of potency of love for agriculture, former Briskop mine worker, Mcebisi Magida, 68, said in 1991 he decided to quit his mining job in Rustenburg to take up livestock farming in his ancestral home.
Magida, who owns 28 sheep and 38 cattle is one of the local farmers that received rams during the handing over event.
"We are happy to get these rams because our sheep have poor genetics, they are small. We think from these Dohne Merino rams we will get more wool clip because they are everything. We will get more meat and wool from them because they are big. In three years' time we will see a big difference," said Magida.
He said they were only selling their sheep to local buyers because they are not the breeds required by the export market but now that they have the Dohne Merino rams, they plan to expand their market reach to include the export market.
Magida, who is also a member of Uncedo Taxi Association, said his life is much better now than when he was working in the mines because both agriculture and the taxi businesses he manages with his sons are giving him good returns.
Pieters, who also handed over 8 shearing sheds to local wool growers, said the Department delivered the 144 Dohne Merino rams to OR Tambo farmers to improve the quality and volume of their wool clip. She said the Eastern Cape provincial government is investing in the construction of shearing sheds to take woolgrowers out of the mud huts they use for shearing.
She said the Department is investing in farmers in rural areas so that they compete with commercial farmers such that when they sell their livestock they will be able to sell to the markets that by from commercial farmers.
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"Foreign countries need meat because they don't have livestock. OR Tambo is one region that has the highest livestock population in the province. We want to improve the breed of their animals so that it is suitable for the markets, they can also export it to other countries so that their livestock can earn them money. We know that in South Africa it is only the East London harbour that has capabilities to load live animals on a ship for export markets," said Pieters.
She said government wants to ensure that when livestock is sold farmers from OR Tambo, the African farmers called onozibaya, people who farm their animals in communal land in rural areas keeping them in their kraals, also benefit by exporting their animals and to be paid in dollars so that they can make meaningful profit.
Pieters said the Department's veterinary services also trained farmers on how to take care of their sheep, feed them, prevent diseases from affecting their sheep and encouraged members of the public and farmers not to eat animals killed by diseases.
