A collaboration between South Africa’s national department of science and innovation, its Technology Innovation Agency, and Cotton SA has cotton farmers in Mpumalanga and Limpopo excited about future possibilities. The beneficiary farmers say that the seemingly small leg up will have a life-changing impact on the way they farm and do business.
According to national minister Blade Nzimande, responsible for higher education and science and technology, new equipment worth R2.5 million will lower the recipient small-scale farmers’ input costs by between 8% and 12% and help them increase their contribution to the national crop.
A better chance to compete
The equipment, which entails two cotton balers, was locally designed and built and procured with the help of Cotton SA, and was donated to two separate cooperatives.
“This lift-up by the department will go a long way, especially for us black farmers who really cannot, on our own, buy this equipment,” says one of the beneficiaries in Marble Hall in Limpopo, cotton farmer Frans Malela.
He says the baler machine they have received will ultimately help them produce more. “This also opens up opportunities for us to play in the market with the big guys because we will be able to deliver on time.
“We used to compact the cotton with our feet. To compact five tonnes of cotton took the whole day, while with this machine it will take only four hours. This means we will be able to compact many tonnes in a day.”
Malela says their machine will be shared and maintained between four different farms.
Government investment in black farmers
Another cotton farmer in Limpopo, Billy Diale of the Peo-Entle co-operative, is looking forward to receiving training to use the machine, as it will make his work much easier and cheaper.
“The baling process we are using is lengthy and expensive. We are now looking forward to reduced costs and a simplified process,” he says.
Diale adds that the hours they had spent on trying to compact the cotton will now be used effectively to help them become more competitive in the market.
“We are very grateful. These machines give us a head start to compete with the big guys in the industry. Time management will be a key tool for us going forward. Importantly, we see this as an investment in black farmers in cotton farming by government. We appreciate the recognition.”
Maria Swele, who has been farming cotton for 18 years under the Swara o Tiise Molemi agricultural cooperative, is relieved that manual baling will now be a thing of the past.
“I believe that our cooperative will be able to do much more with the help of the technology. We have been waiting for this technology for a very long time. I believe, also, that this will attract young people to do cotton farming in our area.”
Bigger impact
Nzimande points to an ever bigger impact up the value chain. “Without the baler machines, cotton harvested by smallholder farmers is delivered to the ginneries in woolpacks and most of the ginneries have modernised their gins to process round bales aligned to the mechanisation that commercial farmers are using,” he says.
“This means that the cotton ginneries incur additional costs to build special modules for cotton delivered in different forms so that they can process it.”
The head of agriculture at the Technology Innovation Agency, Sibusiso Manana says that the provision of the balers is in line with the agency’s developmental mandate to make technology available to emerging and smallholder farmers. This, so that they can be more productive and profitable.
“This kind of partnership is part of the role played by the TIA as an industry builder, engaging in value chain interventions that are economically inclusive.”
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