Dr Siphe Zantsi, an agricultural economist at the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), explains that while larger farms embrace modern technology, rural South African smallholders continue to rely on animals such as donkeys and mules for tasks like ploughing and transport. Here’s why.
Is animal traction still relevant in this day and age, where mechanisation has advanced remarkably? This is a question that development practitioners probably ask themselves when thinking about agricultural development in rural South Africa, particularly in the former homelands.
Animal traction, or animal draft power, is the use of animals to assist farmers and households (mostly rural) in carrying out certain tasks such as ploughing crop lands, transporting goods, and humans.
In addressing this question, let us begin by understanding what agricultural development really entails. Agricultural development is more specific than rural development, which is a bit broader. It entails improving the lives and economic well-being of farmers, the value chain, and agricultural workers.
Thus, part of improving the lives and economic well-being of farmers is the use of efficient, appropriate, and reliable mechanisation. This reduces drudgery and hard labour and saves time, which can be used for other activities.
In the value chain, the cost of transportation can be significantly reduced, given the poor condition of rural roads and the remoteness of many villages, which are often far from towns where farmers could access markets for their produce.
Understanding the types of farmers in SA
Let us also try to understand the types of farmers we have in South Africa and identify those for whom animal traction may be appropriate. At the highest level, on the one hand, we have about 40 000 commercial farmers farming on larger, medium-scale, technologically advanced farms using both mechanical and biotechnology methods.
On the other hand, we have more than 2 million smallholder farmers working on small pieces of land – less than a hectare – supplementing household food and selling surplus.
However, smallholder farmers are not a homogeneous group, and the variation between smallholder farmers is even much wider than within commercial farmers.
For example, for some smallholder farming households, tilling the land is a cultural practice that goes hand in hand with establishing a household rather than a means of profit maximisation. However, for others, it is an economic activity that adds a significant share to household income, and the management and investment are higher than for the other group.
A typical smallholder farming household in the former homelands, for example, in the Eastern Cape or KwaZulu-Natal, would have within their homestead plot a section for building residential structures and kraals, as well as an arable piece of land for planting crops and vegetables.
The role of animal traction in rural areas
Planting maize in the gardens is more of a norm than an economic activity aimed at generating profits or ensuring subsistence in these areas. Most households hire tractors to plough their gardens and hire horses, mules, or donkeys to plant and weed the maize garden.
As part of the fieldwork for farmer surveys I have conducted in the Eastern Cape in more than four different villages, I have observed that cattle are no longer used for draft power. Instead, a few households that own donkeys, mules, or horses offer ploughing, planting, or weeding services.
The ploughing service usually costs a little less than a tractor service. To plough a garden, a tractor could between R500 and R600, while ploughing by animals could cost R300 to R400. Planting in some villages costs R300 per garden of a hectare or less.
Providing these services offers an income to some rural households. Although this is seasonal, after the cropping season, these animals are still hired out for transporting sand, bricks, water, etc., because the construction industry has become a significant economic activity in most rural areas.
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The economics of animal traction
In some of my research conducted in Eastern Cape villages, “Revisiting the benefits of animal traction to subsistence smallholder farmers: A case study of Ndabakazi villages in Butterworth, Eastern Cape,” I have shown that smallholder farming rural households spend more money on cultivating land because they tend to hire services for every maize cropping activity – ploughing, planting, and removing weeds. However, if a household owned a horse, it could cut all these costs.
Animal traction is still relevant to smallholder farming households cultivating small plots that are less than two hectares, which is why some households still keep work animals.
However, farmers now prefer to use horses, donkeys, or mules rather than cattle because cattle serve other functions and have a shorter lifespan, meaning they need to be trained more often.
Such skills are slowly disappearing because the use of animal power is perceived as a backward activity that no one wants to be associated with. It is never portrayed as real farming, and those who use tractors are seen as real farmers.
Nevertheless, animal traction has its disadvantages as well. One such disadvantage is the labour intensiveness, which could be a challenge for smallholder farming households where parents struggle to mobilise family labour. In such cases, one might consider using hand-driven walking tractors with 18-horsepower engines, if they can afford and maintain them.
A forgotten tool
To wrap up, South Africa is blessed with a variety of farmers – mega-farmers, large-scale farmers, and small-scale farmers – each facing different socioeconomic challenges.
For sure, animal traction is not appropriate for all of these farmers, but there are those who can still benefit from using animals to carry out some household and farming activities.
Since Paul Starkey’s book Animal traction in South Africa documented animal traction in the country, it has not been completely forgotten. Nevertheless, it does not receive publicity, and the attitudes towards it are not positive, even from development practitioners. Currently, there is no policy whatsoever that addresses animal traction in agricultural development.
- Dr Siphe Zantsi is an agricultural economist at the Agricultural Research Council’s economic analysis unit. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Food For Mzansi.
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