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Acceptance of first prize on behalf of Eastern Cape emergent red meat producers
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Speeches and Media Releases
 Agriculture

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STATEMENT BY THE MEC FOR AGRICULTURE AND LAND AFFAIRS, THE HONOURABLE MAX MAMASE ON ACCEPTING THE FIRST PRIZE ON BEHALF OF THE EASTERN CAPE 
EMERGENT REDMEAT PRODUCERS AT THE NEPRO CONGRESS HELD AT BLOEMFONTEIN ON THE 17TH SEPTEMBER 1998

Chairperson,
 Mr. Mahanjana, the General manager of Nepro,
 Conference delegates,
 Farmers,
 Distinguished guests,
 Ladies and Gentleman

It gives me pleasure to have been invited and be part of such an imperative congress and especially to accept such a wonderful prize on 
behalf of Eastern Cape farmers. What is also exciting to me, is to notice that farmers involved in diversified agricultural production are 
coming together in unions, associations, co-operatives and other forms of organisations in order to face the challenges of Agricultural 
Renaissance.

As we proceed with the Reconstruction and Development of our country, we should be clear about the historic global economic realities that 
dictate the market forces of the day.

The end of the cold war has shifted the goalposts in favour of the West as represented by the U.S.A. That is why today Americans are 
dominating the international markets.

Expansion of capitalism, which is also known as Globalisation, is threatening our development initiatives and something drastic must be 
done to ensure that our agricultural products are able to enter the international market and be effective and competitive.

Chairperson, let us agree that as red meat producers we are faced with a challenge of increasing our production capacity. In the province 
the latest stock census statistics show us that we have 2, 328, 072 cattle, (value: R41, 905, 296) 7, 013, 501sheep ( vaue: R 24, 547, 253) 
and 3, 509, 299 goats (R10, 527, 897). The latest population statistics based on the 1996 figures show us that we have 5 865 00 people in 
the province. The stock that we have cannot be able to even feed the population of this province.

That is why most of the meat is imported from other countries. Our local red meat producers are not able to meet the local demand yet.

Chairperson, most of our beef and mutton is exported from Australia, and Ireland. New Zealand and France are also exporting mutton to this 
country. This impacts badly on our development initiative because we need foreign currency to strengthen our economy.

Stock sales are held every month in each district and if we do not have a strategy to increase our livestock, this industry is going to 
face a major crisis. The negative economic factor about these stock sales is that we are selling to speculators when actually we should be 
selling directly to abattoirs. In my view I think we need a 5-year strategy to increase our livestock.

Artificial insemination is one reliable solution to increase our livestock. In our province, Vetrex division of our veterinary section will 
be relocating to Dohne Agricultural Research Institute very soon and they will be offering training to farmers on artificial insemination. 
In future we need to discuss the possibility of opening up artificial insemination centres around the country.

Chairperson, first and foremost it my view that we need to identify areas with grazing capacity.

That is why in the Eastern Cape we have a Geographic Information System that gives us information on areas suitable for crop production, 
beef production, grazing, small-stock grazing and marginal land.

Based on this information we are then able zone lands according to its potential. Rotational grazing is an imperative form of grazing if we 
are to avoid over-grazing which is destroying our topsoil fertility soil.

Rangeland management programme will be run at Dohne to provide training to commercial and small-scale farmers on how to best take care of 
the land. Farmers must support the Land care programme to be launched this month. Its intention is to educate the public on how to minimise 
land degradation.

BREEDING

Chairperson, breeding needs to be taken seriously by red meat producers if they are to produce qualitative livestock that is suitable for 
this highly competitive industry.

At the moment, only small fractions of farmers, especially, are having breeding programmes. The lack of breeding programmes can be 
attributed to the current Breeding Act, which requires a farmer to own at least 500 cattle to be a member of a breeding association.

Bonsmara is popular amongst the small-scale farmers and if they can start breeding with other breeds they can definitely increase their 
productivity in red meat production. The Department of Agriculture must focus on designed genetics when they assist farmers in breeding.

Because of undeveloped pastures we have only one type of breeding and that is mixed breeding. If we can develop our pastures we can then be 
able to introduce other forms of breeding. In our province we have Mpofu Training Centre that is offering breeding training and we will 
ensure that Dohne also offers such training.

ABBATOIRS

Chairperson, another crucial issue is the availability of abattoirs. In our province we have 69 registered and 16 unregistered abattoirs.

The ones that we have, are not close enough to most of stock farmers. They end up paying huge sums of money for transportation of their 
livestock. With the market value of the livestock currently not so good, they end up not benefiting from their livestock.

At the moment the value of red meat is very low and that means probably we need to fatten our livestock because a correct fat content can 
give us value for our livestock.

As we transform agriculture from subsistence way of living to a more formidable productive form of agriculture, we need to agree that 
agriculture is business. We must then agree that marketing of agricultural products is central to this process.

For approximately fifty years, agricultural marketing has in South Africa has been characterised by a focus towards commercial agriculture, 
significant centralisation of policy formulation and a high degree of control in the interest of commercial farmers.

The new Marketing of Agricultural Products Act (No. 47 of 1996) provides a balanced focus commercial, small-scale farmers private sector, 
consumers and the taxpayers.

Chairperson, whilst the Act is an excellent piece of work that can make a positive contribution to the process I have mentioned before, it 
is my view that a lot of work still needs to be done to make sure that it is clearly defined for the farmers especially those that whose 
interest were not included in the previous Act.

Chairperson, we tend to overlook the role of women in agriculture, and associate them with nutritional programmes, welfare issues and other 
reproductive roles.

In reality they are major productive agents, of the agricultural sector. In our province we saw them dominating as beneficiaries of our 
Rapid Impact Programme which provided more than 9 million for small-scale commercial farming projects like poultry, community gardens, 
piggery, small irrigation, dairy and fencing projects.

I submit to this conference that their role should be acknowledged and be organised to be part of formations like Nepro.

LAND

Land availability is another thorny issue that farmers and the department must resolve. We as the provincial government have limited powers 
over land matters.

The national department of Land Affairs is handling all land issues. We are only managing lands given to us by the national department of 
land affairs through the power of attorney.

We have formed the Public Land Disposal committee together with regional office personnel from the department of land affairs to try and 
fast track land disposal to farmers.

We are hoping that in the next few weeks we will make significant progress in this regard.

GAME FARMING

Diversification of farming is imperative and in line with the new international farming trend. Game farming first comes to mind when I talk 
about diversification.

Nowadays, people are health conscious and they are moving away from red meat over-consumption due to cardiovascular problems.

In game farming, you do not have to worry about dipping tanks, vaccination and outbreak of diseases. Instead you are assured of good prices 
at very low mantainence costs.



In our province we are busy speaking to the department of economic affairs to lend animals to the emerging farmers for approximately a 
period of 3 years so that they can give quality offspring and you can then return the old animal to them.

We will then facilitate the formation of joint ventures between small-scale farmers interested in this industry and experienced game 
farmers.

Now that the GIS data is available, we will release marginal land for game farming.

Chairperson, our livestock must be made more productive than the current situation. We must ensure that we get quality dairy products, 
(i.e. milk, cheese, yorghut) beef, skins for manufacturing jackets, wool for clothing, mutton, horns for button production, bones for 
bonemeal and afal for dog and cat food.

CONCLUSION

Farmers must be organised in their different formations. You must form commodity groups and Associations so that we can establish an 
inclusive Agricultural Chamber.

Farming must have a commercial purpose and we can achieve this by ensuring that we add value to our products. Farming in traditional norms 
must be abandoned. As we move towards the 21st century, we need to embark on a commercial approach.

Small-scale farmers must form joint ventures with commercial farmers. In some instances commercial farmers must transfer farming skills to 
small-scale farmers. This will go a long way in reducing attacks and killing of commercial farmers. We still need to sit down as farmers 
from all sectors and develop strategies that will exploit the agricultural potential of this province.

During my visit abroad, I signed Coferasta Co-operation Agreement with Italians.

This agreement will benefit fruit and vegetable farmers.

I wish you fruitful deliberations during your discussions and I hope you will seriously consider the issues I have raised with you and make 
constructive resolutions on them.

It is a great honour for me to accept this prize on behalf of the Eastern Cape Emergent Red Meat Producers.

I Thank You !!!

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