Leadership & Innovation: The Umzimvubu WBHO/ComMark Red Meat Project Celebrates Local Farmers

The ComMark Trust would like to congratulate Mr. V G Gijana, Mr. V Ngqusa and Mr. M C Quta for outstanding leadership and the promotion of economic development through the ComMark/WBHO Umzimvubu Red Meat Project.

In this photo: Mr. V G Gijana, The Chairman’s Award for Leadership; Mr. M C Quta Most Efficient Feed Conversion Lighter Tollies; Mr. V Ngqasa Award to Most Dedicated Livestock Owner.

The Umzimvubu Red Meat Project

When the WBHO-ComMark Umzimvubu Red Meat Project was launched on 25 June in Mt. Frere, Eastern Cape, over 300 people representing local, provincial and national government, retail business, regional business associations, and more than 250 local emerging and communal farmers celebrated the road to economic development.  

Action-Research for Strong Interventions

The Umzimvubu Red Meat Project is a part of ComMark’s Eastern Cape Red Meat Project (ECRMP) which began in 2005.  The project grew out of research that ComMark conducted in 2003-2004. This research showed that emerging and communal farmers in the Eastern Cape earn far less income from their livestock assets than commercial farmers. There are 3,1 million head of cattle in the province – 22% of national herd – of which about two thirds are owned by emerging/communal farmers. Yet commercial farmers market two to three times more animals than emerging/communal farmers and realize gross margins per head that are three to four times greater. The research also showed that promising opportunities exist for communal farmers to increase their income through making more extensive use of formal meat marketing channels. To make the markets work for economically poor people, it is necessary:

• To build capacity amongst communal farmers to engage with the operation and requirements of formal red meat markets
• To develop marketing channels that will increase their participation in formal red meat markets
• To improve the age, health and breeding of the animals that they market

Building on Community Knowledge and Leadership

The Umzimvubu Red Meat Project was launched in early 2008 with the objective of using the experience gained by ComMark in other parts of the province to assist cattle farmers in the Alfred Nzo District Municipality.   

But the Umzimvubu project really began with the vision and leadership of local farmers. After some of the Umzimvubu farmers visited ComMark’s Amathole District Municipality pilot project, they wanted to see how this kind of intervention could enable and support their entry into formal red meat markets. Mr. V Ngqasa was one of the farmers who returned to Umzimvubu and insisted that the programme would not only work, but also thrive in the Alfred Nzo District Municipality.

With the leadership of Mr. Ngqasa and other farmers, ComMark began a process of consultation with a broader cohort of farmers and the Department of Agriculture. Inkosi Nosizwe Makaula was involved in the planning stages as well and offered land for the project site at Lugangeni. Solid buy-in and participatory planning from the farmers, the Eastern Cape Department of Agriculture, and the Umzimvubu Local Municipality gave the project a firm foundation.

The project also includes site visits and on-site trainings to provide hands-on capacity building for farmers. For example, ComMark provided farmers the opportunity to discuss cattle growth rates at the Ngqushwa Feedlot with the Chairman of the Philani Farmers’ Association, to see how auctions work in practice, and to get a working understanding of how abattoirs operate. Because of this kind of capacity building, successive groups of farmers are getting access to information and knowledge about how formal red meat markets work and what is needed to take advantage of the opportunities they offer.

In this photo: Calf feeding at Custom Feeding Programme in Mt. Frere.

Innovations to Support Economic Development

Without a doubt, the intervention that most directly caught the imagination and enthusiasm of farmers is the project’s innovative Custom-Feeding Programme (CFPs). This programme operates through simplified, low cost feedlots, modelled on commercial feedlots – a new concept and the first of its kind in the Eastern Cape. Livestock are admitted for 90-100 days, for intensive feeding (the costs of which are borne by farmers pro rata) and veterinary care (the costs of which are borne by the respective owners) before marketing, usually through abattoirs. The project’s efforts to resume auctions and the use of CFPs open up new channels for farmers to participate in formal red meat markets. The programmes are also a powerful vehicle for increasing the effectiveness of training.

The demonstration effect of the Amathole pilot has been extraordinary: farmers have been able to see for themselves what three months of intensive nutrition and veterinary care can do for correctly selected animals and how a market-ready animal can be bred in 9-12 months, as opposed to the conventional 5 or more years. WBHO and ComMark believe that the Custom Feeding Programme will help Umzimvubu farmers to realize substantial, sustainable increases in income from their livestock and that this can be replicated in other communities. A third such programme is now being established at Fort Cox Agricultural College, in conjunction with the college.