It’s an uphill battle for black farmers
A COMBINATION of outdated methods, lack of acquisition of new skills and a habit of working as individuals have been identified as some of the reasons why black farmers battle to make a mark in the red meat industry.
Several livestock owners who spoke to The Mercury this week reflected on the hardship encountered while entering this highly competitive field.
They spoke of acquiring farms that had no equipment and facing stiff resistance from white farm owners.
A breeder from Mooi River who wanted to remain anonymous said the system especially at auctions was designed to make black people fail in livestock farming.
This, he explained, was often reflected at the auctions where whiteowned livestock was sold at the highest possible price with black farmers getting a pittance out of the sale.
“It is a well organised system meant to benefit white farmers. In the end, an African farmer ends up accepting the offer made to him regardless of the fact that comparatively it is lower than that of a white farmer,” said the livestock owner.
Sanele Mbhele, 35, a livestock owner from Dundee, agreed with the observation that black farmers, especially those with livestock, were in a difficult position.
He said he had seen how white farmers used the numbers game to their advantage at auctions.
“They form associations for a reason. It gives them bargaining power when buying feed. They are able to negotiate discounts with producers
of feed and food supplements. This is where we as black farmers are losing out because there is an obsession of going at it alone. Unfortunately, that does not work in this industry, especially when you do not have deep pockets,” Mbhele said.
He said that while he, like others, was born into farming under traditional African practices, black farmers needed to do some introspection regarding the methods they used when breeding their stock.
“The meat industry is fiercely competitive, no doubt, but in truth who would want to buy a beast that is not getting regular medical attention and is not given the nutrients that make it
saleable? You may have a herd of over 100 cattle but if it is not properly fed and treated regularly, no one will want to touch it,” said Mbhele.
He said he had early on realised the importance of getting a tertiary qualification and this had enabled him to get a greater perspective about the field, and achieve modest success over the years.
“I know when to vaccinate my livestock, the nutrients needed at different stages of growing, and this makes my stock sell well at auctions.”
He said black farmers’ organisations, especially those with a national profile, needed to encourage individual farmers to work as a collective.
Another farmer, Ndumiso Xulu, cited access to land as the biggest barrier facing black livestock farmers who wanted to enter the meat industry.
With many livestock owners using communal land for grazing because they could not afford adequately resourced farms, this practice had its shortcomings which included:
* Absence of proper maintenance of grazing land.
* Inadequate mechanisms, including vaccination, to guard against disease.
Xulu, 44, entered the field in 2014. He believes that livestock breeding could be the springboard for real radical economic transformation if the government had a thorough plan to assist those entering agriculture.
“Unfortunately, right now one finds that black farmers who are doing well hardly get support from the government. There are farms that are lying fallow right now because they were given to people who know nothing about farming,” said Xulu.
He agreed that operating as a collective was key for black farmers because it provided scope for more knowledge to new entrants and purchasing power, but stressed that it was important for such an arrangement to be entered into by like-minded individuals.
Member of provincial legislature(MPL) Siboniso Duma said black livestock owners were receiving a raw deal because they were not adequately resourced to compete equally with other races in the red meat market.
He acknowledged that government intervention and involvement had simply not been enough to assist black livestock owners. “When you look at where you will find most of your livestock, it is largely concentrated on communal land as opposed to commercial farms, but entry into the meat market shows a different picture all together, and from the looks of things it will stay like that for a while unless something more drastic is done,” said Duma.
According to the latest statement from the Red Meat Producers’ Organisation, the industry generates more than R80 billion a year and there is scope for growth in exports in the near future.
Attempts to get comment from the National African Farmers Union and the African Farmers Association of South Africa were unsuccessful.