Ordinary South Africans cannot afford red meat in supermarkets, says Limpopo agriculture MEC Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, because the cost of importing is so high.
"We (in Limpopo) import about 34% of our red meat from as far away as Namibia." The MEC was speaking at the launch of the Nguni cattle Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) project in Vuvha, Limpopo, on Tuesday. The ART project aims to alleviate some of this cost and stimulate the rural beef industry, through increasing the number of Nguni cattle in rural areas.
The project is a collaboration between the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) and the government.
Cattle in poor communities are an unproductive asset, accounting for 40% of the national herd but contributing only 5% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) from beef, says the ARC’s Animal Production Institute programme manager, Prof Tshimangadzo Nedambale. "The project intends to build breeding-line (Nguni) bulls and heifers (for) farmers to address the challenges of breeding, or availability of bulls in their communities," he says.
It involves assisted reproductive technologies, such as artificial insemination, as well as DNA technology. "Nguni cattle were chosen for the project because they can survive in harsh environmental conditions, are disease-tolerant and are suitable for poor farmers who cannot afford to spend extra money on cattle feed," Prof Nedambale says. "Nguni are easy to breed, but smallholding farmers do not have bulls, and bulls are very expensive to purchase."
ARC CEO Shadrack Moepuli says the ART project is a national initiative to grow livestock production among rural farmers, with the ARC having developed the technology.
TIA CEO Simphiwe Duma says: "The ARC brings the science and we bring the money." The mandate of the innovation agency is to provide funding and to support ventures that would be considered too risky by private venture capital.
Mr Duma says part of the R24m TIA has invested "will be used to buy state-of-the-art equipment such as mobile laboratories, artificial insemination kits and other computer items".
There is much interest among local cattle farmers. Richard Makhado, of Tshikundamalema, has 10 head of cattle but envisions having 100: "I need the knowledge. Without knowledge, I can’t grow my business." Similarly, Tshianeo Mathidi sees himself increasing his herd from 43 to "more than 100".
"We are using the technology already," he says. "It helps us save costs instead of buying expensive bulls." Mr Makhado says a bull can cost upwards of R5000, depending on its size.
But the realities of rural SA make it difficult for these farmers to meet their ambitious targets. Mr Mathidi says he had been aiming to have an all-Nguni herd in five years, but this was not possible because there was no local water source. "Our camp does not have water, so our animals have to share (drinking) troughs with other areas," he says. This means the cows could be impregnated by other bulls, setting back the Nguni breeding process.
Another stumbling block is that although the farmers have ambitious goals, there is no formal market. "We don’t have problems with the local market. People buy cows for functions, for funerals," says Mr Mathidi. "But we have not gone to the formal market. When the Ngunis are up and running, then it will be an option."
Mr Duma, however, is already thinking big: "The market cannot just be SA. It is critical to include China and other Asian countries as well. There is support within TIA to take it that far."
Mr Mathidi says they have been trained by the ARC in "farming for profit", which teaches small-scale farmers how to run a business. On the ground there is a great deal of interest, and farmers consider it a sustainable niche in a province in which agriculture is the main source of revenue.
"People in other villages admire our excitement and enthusiasm and want to be part of it," Mr Mathidi says. (BusinessDay)
