Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
- The National Wool Growers’ Association (NWGA) has significantly increased wool production in communal areas, with the wool clip’s value growing from R2 million in the 1990s to R383 million before the COVID pandemic.
- NWGA’s focus on communal farmers includes intensive training, genetic improvement of sheep flocks, and integrating these farmers into the formal wool value chain.
- The Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, despite high poverty, hold immense potential for agricultural development, especially in wool production.
- Modern shearing sheds, equipped with necessary infrastructure, are pivotal for communal farmers, serving both agricultural and community purposes.
- Effective farmer development in communal areas requires strong public-private partnerships, with the state providing financing and industry organizations like the NWGA executing the implementation.
Agriculture is regarded as an excellent vehicle for poverty alleviation. But is the farmer development programme by the wool industry a good example of how to effectively unlock the vast potential in the deep rural areas of South Africa?
Farmers in South Africa are generally classified into two main groups, namely those who farm on communal land, and those who farm on private land. Within these two broad categories, they are further classified into three groups, namely subsistence, emerging, or commercial.
This latter classification, according to Dan Kriek, general manager of the National Wool Growers’ Association (NWGA), has become obsolete, due to the stereotyping it entails. He would much rather see a different kind of classification used, one that allows for the notion of mobility from one category to the next.
The classification he suggests comes from a 2016 research report by the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape titled “Challenging the stereotypes: Small-scale black farmers and private sector support programmes in South Africa”, authored by Adetola Okunlola, Mnqobi Ngubane, Ben Cousins, and Andries du Toit.
Efforts towards farmer development, he feels, should concentrate on enabling them to move up this scale, one category at a time.
Improvement for a better outcome
Communal livestock production poses unique challenges which requires unique solutions. Some of these challenges include biosecurity and flock health in a communal setup, market access, product quality, financing and resource allocation.
The NWGA has for many years spearheaded initiatives to meet some of these challenges with the underlying motive of growing and improving the wool clip of communal wool farmers, especially in the Eastern Cape. The results, says Kriek, have been robust.
“Over the past three decades or so, the wool clip from communal areas has increased significantly. The value of their clip sold in the formal market has increased from around R2 million in the 1990s, to R383 million just prior to the Covid pandemic. And we have hardly scratched the surface.”
The NWGA, he says, is a very good example of inclusivity, representing the entire spectrum of producers, from the smallest to the largest. Over time the wool industry has created a remarkable industry with a very efficient and relatively short value chain, including producers, brokers and buyers. South African wool has become a highly sought after export product. This is something to be very proud of.
It should, however, always be considered that the various categories of farmers have very different needs that demand different solutions.
Looking specifically at the needs of communal farmers, Dan says intensive training has formed the basis of the NWGA’s involvement over the years. The second focus is on genetic improvement of farmers’ sheep flocks. Thirdly, the focus is very much on including these producers in the formal wool value chain.
Poverty alleviation efforts
South Africa is facing desperate and dangerous levels of poverty. The Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are the two provinces with the highest levels of poverty and unemployment. Ironically, says Dan, these are also the two provinces with the biggest potential for agricultural development, and specifically growth in the wool sector.
“We have to recognise the role the state has played over the past three decades in assisting the NWGA in projects such as financing the genetic improvement project (generally referred to as the Ram Project), as well as infrastructure improvement such as shearing sheds.”
Shearing sheds in the spotlight
An important paradigm shift was necessary in the thinking around how communal farmers would be best served. “Communal areas generally do not have well-fenced grazing camps and water infrastructure, or even handling facilities such as you would expect on an average commercial farm.
“The wool producers farming on this communal land organise themselves in groups around specific shearing sheds, and try and regulate the management of their flocks with the shearing shed as pivot point. What enabled the NWGA to enter these groups was to focus on the various shearing sheds by improving infrastructure.”
Each of these groups, served by a central shearing shed, explains Kriek, could be approached as a single farming entity and efforts regarding training and infrastructure development should receive the same focus. “We need to spend time with these communities to understand the community dynamics in order to properly assist them.
Weaning percentages
“When comparing an aspect such as the lambing percentage of these farming groups with that of typical commercial producers, there is little difference. The big difference comes in when you compare weaning percentages. Here there is huge room for improvement; poor weaning percentages indicate a lack of infrastructure, fodder flow planning, and health management. This is precisely what our training programmes focus on, specifically better planning of lambing seasons, utilising lambing camps and ram camps, vaccination schedules, and fodder flow planning.”
An important element, he stresses, is the improvement of the resource base by stressing the principle that, if they are managed in a sustainable system, fewer animals of higher quality can be more profitable than more animals of lesser quality.
“Because the NWGA has been actively involved in communal areas for many years, we are ideally positioned to now broaden our focus to include the red meat factor as well, within a holistic, resource-based approach. This thrust should also include a concrete evaluation system for us to be able to measure progress. As the growth in the commercial agricultural sector was the driver of immense socio-economic and industrial growth over the past hundred odd years, I am convinced we can achieve the same socio-economic growth in communal areas by stimulating agricultural growth.”
Where credit is due
Kriek stresses, however, that there are already examples of farming groups around some of these shearing sheds that have developed into top-class wool producers with top-class management and administration. Their wool is rightly competing on the world stage.
“These producers do not stand back for any commercial producer in terms of weaning percentages, genetic improvement, or wool quality. They buy their rams from the best breeders in the country. They set best practice standards in their communities, which serve as example for other groups that are not quite there yet.”
There are around 960 communal shearing sheds in the country, says Kriek. Some were built by the state and others by the NWGA. Some of them were renovated and upgraded, although many still need urgent upgrading.
“The latest shearing sheds are modern, fully equipped facilities with sorting tables, wool bins, sheep-handling facilities, a wool press, dip tank, toilet facilities, and water tanks. When not in use for shearing, the surrounding communities use the facilities as a community centre. It also serves as reference point for Cape Wools, with a member number through which the wool from each individual producer attached to that shearing shed is marketed.”
The challenges
This, says Kriek, brings the conversation back to where it started. Yes, there are various categories of producers in the country, each with its own challenges. The aim should be to empower each individual to progress from his or her current category to the next. Step by step. The NWGA is but one entity actively involved in this endeavour. There are many others that have and are achieving notable successes. However, there are also many challenges that have not been met yet, such as a viable financing system to finance farmers without the normal collateral to secure loans.
“Farmer development, especially in communal areas, depends on a sound public-private partnership. Industry organisations such as the NWGA have the expertise and feet on the ground to be the implementers. The role of the state, as I see it, is to provide financing for projects. For this partnership to be successful, mutual trust and co-operation is imperative. We should trust the state to fulfil its function, and the state should trust us to do what we do best, for the benefit of the country.”
Although huge strides have been made in terms of empowering communal farmers, adds Deon Saayman, CEO of Cape Wools, there certainly is ample room for improvement. To this end, an empowerment trust has been created with the aim of managing empowerment initiatives in the industry. This, he says, will enable the industry to pool resources strategically.
“The statutory measure allows Cape Wools to monitor every shearing shed in the communal areas. We have also adapted our Sustainable Cape Wools Standard for communal production conditions. Built into this electronic assessment we have also included a needs assessment to track the specific needs of every shearing shed. We are now able to determine the costs attached to these needs and can make donor funds available and have a much bigger impact.”
An important perspective, stresses Saayman, is that this is a collaborative effort by the industry as a whole. Izak Hofmeyr, Plaas Media
For more information, contact Dan Kriek on 082 944 0566 or Deon Saayman on 083 291 5999.
