Investment in wool production already showing positive results

Our department continues investing in the businesses of communal wool growers across the province by injecting millions of rand in constructing infrastructure, such as fenced shearing sheds with dipping tanks and distributing livestock with superior genes.

This investment helps these farmers, who include rural women, men and youth, people with disabilities, to produce quality wool and meat through government support, such as health interventions, training and livestock improvement.

We do this in pursuit of the commitments we made as the ANC to the electorate when campaigning ahead of the last general elections when we committed to “carry out a sustainable land reform programme that expands participation in, and ownership of, agricultural production, advances food security and helps reverse the apartheid spatial separation of our cities and towns”.

That is why it warms the cockles of my heart when we deliver essential agriculture infrastructure services.

The much needed investments help farmers improve production, increase earnings to meet their needs such as educating their children and putting food on their tables.

I commend the work done by our officials, our private sector partners and farmers for the successful campaign that ended the abuse our farmers suffered from the so-called ‘Boya-Boya’ vehicles that buy wool at paltry and degrading prices.

Working with the Eastern Cape Communal Wool Growers Association (ECCWGA), the province shears almost 650,000 sheep in five district municipalities.

We have signed a three-year MoU with the association for the development of communal farmers in a way that grows their businesses to become sustainable and profitable enterprises.

To ensure that farmers are united and avoid being abused by unscrupulous buyers, we assisted in the setting up of about 401 wool growers’ associations or shearing sheds that produce 8,666 bales which weigh 150kg on average.

In this financial year, I handed over 10 shearing sheds worth R10.9m to wool growers’ associations in Tsolo and Qumbu villages as part of this ongoing programme.

Farmers were thrilled by these new facilities and committed to work together to continue their business, grow their trade so that they improve their businesses by selling quality wool.

The government is constructing shearing sheds and facilities in rural areas that were previously only seen in commercial farms owned by white farmers.

To ensure inclusive economic growth through agriculture, we make sure farmers get the same equipment that commercial farmers have, so that they earn bigger profits from their wool production business.

Our wool growers’ development programme is coupled with the provision of quality rams and ewes to farmers, with the aim of improving the genetic condition of their flock so that they have good wool and meat which will provide them with a good income. The majority of wool growers in our province did not wait for the government to start their businesses.

They bought sheep and goats and sheared them in their own residential properties.

By the time government joined with financial support, farmers were already working and selling their wool. Our investment gives them a much needed injection.

In their old structures, farmers had to endure unbearable conditions that saw their wool contaminated with dirt and a loss of quality because of a lack of equipment.

Because of the shearing sheds we are handing over to farmers, they are able to shear their sheep, sort and press the wool properly before it is delivered to buyers.

The length of wool plays a big role in prices because wool is paid per length, fineness, clean yield and weight, hence we are also training shearers.

We are investing in farmers to improve their herd, improve the quality of their wool clip to be the same quality needed by the markets, hence lot of communal wool is now sold through BKB and CWC.

Recently there was an outcry when China banned our wool because of suspected foot and mouth disease. The outcry was justified as China is the biggest wool market.

The situation triggered the need to ensure the whole value chain of our wool is enjoyed in the country by opening firms that will process the wool to the final products and this will create more jobs.

This development, which is long overdue will need all stakeholders from farmers to private sector, government, its entities and other role players in the sector, to make it a reality.

As the MEC of this department, I am impressed by the determination of communities, involvement of youth and women in wool production and their slogan: Uboya bethu, indyebo yethu (Our wool, our wealth).