Wool growers and communal sheep farmers are in high spirits after receiving a fully-fledged sheep-shearing shed and over 100 rams of Dohne Merino sheep.
The investment by the Eastern Cape department of rural development and agrarian reform (DRDAR) and the Chris Hani District Municipality is to improve the quality of clips produced by communal farmers across the district.
Embekweni Woolgrowers, the recipients, said the intergovernmental investment would help strengthen primary production in the district. They are an affiliate of the Enoch Mgijima Woolgrowers Association under the Chris Hani Woolgrowers Association.
It’s all about wool quality
According to the chairperson of the Enoch Mgijima Woolgrowers Association, Siyambonga Booi, emerging producers, especially those from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, are not participating meaningfully in wool production. This is all attributed to wool quality.
“Our counterparts sell 1kg of wool for R300 while the majority of emerging black growers sell 1kg between R150 and R200. This has nothing to do with race. It is a matter of quality,” said Booi.
He acknowledged that government investment in wool production through the construction of shearing sheds and livestock improvement programmes has professionalised a large number of previously marginalised groups.
“In the past livestock farming used to be a men’s field in rural areas but because we’ve been made to realise its commercial value, it has become a source of living even in women-led households,” he said.
‘Ukulima bubomi’
Chris Hani District Municipality is the province’s top wool producer. A total of 20 293 bales of wool were produced in the five districts of the Eastern Cape in the year 2022. The clip was gathered from 1 202 shearing sheds with the Chris Hani District being the biggest contributor with 457 sheds that produced 7079 bales.
The local growers boast a flock of 3 522 sheep that belong to its 83 members, 31 of whom are women. In the past year, they banked over R1.2 million from a sale of 83 bales of their wool clip.
Their wool clip is sheared off the sheep, sorted, packed and transported to a Gqeberha-based agent who then sells it to international markets.
Nosakhele Feni is one of the women who are founding members of Embekweni Woolgrowers, who started with two sheep but now has a flock of 132.
“I am a mother of eight and none of them are working. The sheep have become our main source of income from selling their wool to selling the actual sheep. Ukulima bubomi (farming is life),” Feni said.
Embekweni Woolgrowers came into being way back in 1976. Operating in informal structures, it was only in 2007 that the members decided to finance the construction of a better structure from their savings.
However, even the one they had built on their own held them back in terms of producing to their full potential.
During the 2018/19 financial year, their application for infrastructural support was approved by the DRDAR and R1.1 million was invested in the construction of the shearing shed.
Investing in communal sheep farmers
In her 2023/24 fiscal year budget speech, MEC Nonkqubela Pieters committed an amount of R42.5 million towards livestock production, construction of multipurpose sheds and other relevant infrastructure.
Pieters said the firming of primary wool production presented an investment opportunity for secondary role players in the industry.
“Now that your government has catapulted you to a professional level of wool producers, a gap for processing has been opened.
“DRDAR alone cannot finance every economic development programme in the agricultural sector. It is for this reason that we work hand in glove with the private sector and other role players to create more opportunities and add value to our primary and raw products,” she said.
She further committed that the department would swiftly engage the national department of water and sanitation to address hindrances around the provision of water in the Embekweni area. “The stock dams that are said to be silted will also be attended to. This has been budgeted for,” she said.
The investment is expected to bring sustainability to the local wool growers.
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