Wool farmers handed second shearing shed to boost business
A shearing shed worth R925,000 was handed to 32 farmers at Baccles Farm in Ntabethemba on Friday.
MEC for rural development and agrarian reform (DRDAR) Nonkqubela Pieters officially handed over the shed.
“This shed has every piece of equipment needed by the wool-grower farmers, which will help ease their work of producing high-quality wool,” she said to the farmers.
She said the wool pressing machine supplied by the government would provide farmers with information on the weight of wool leaving the shed and help them work out expected income.
She said the members had been encouraged to teach their children and youth about farming. “Without the youth being part of the business, it stands a chance of failing,” Pieters said.
When the department built the first structure for Sophumelela Shearing Shed, it had 16 farmers, with its membership having now doubled to 32, 13 of whom were women.
“This shows that they are serious about this. The government has intervened and assisted with this second structure and equipment,” she said.
Sophumelela Shearing Shed chair Funathini Ngwevela said: “We are joyful today.
“When we started with 16 members in 2006 we had no shed at all. We were using a closeddown shop at the time. We built our shed in 2009 and we continued to ask government to assist us until they built this shed in 2017.”