Plump chickens, but no market
Aberdeen farmer laments lack of sales outlets for quality fowls and pigs
They have been raising plump, quality, free-range chickens and pigs for the past three years, but it has been a struggle to find a market to sell them and finally make a profit.
Since the farming initiative was started in the Karoo town of Aberdeen in 2015, the Desemele Project has cost more than the rewards.
Project chair Iviwe Desemele, who runs the farm with four others, said they were struggling to break into the market and finally make a success of the project.
“Every day we’re pumping more and more money into this farm and I haven’t seen a return on the capital I used to start it,” she said.
Desemele, 46, a former nurse, said she started the Desemele Project because she wanted to create jobs for locals after she saw the conditions they were living in and how they were eating.
“Because of my background as a health practitioner, I was deeply concerned at the way people were eating and living.
“I wanted people to be healthy and understand that you are what you eat,” she said.
“I’ve also instilled this passion of healthy living in the people who work with me.”
Desemele runs a chicken farm, keeps pigs, and grows vegetables in her huge garden.
The Desemele Project is situated in an abandoned municipal compound of about 5ha.
Desemele said that when they started running the farm, she suggested to her partners that they raise chickens the natural way instead of injecting them with hormones to speed up growth.
“We started off by buying a hatchery machine and looked for eggs at neighbouring farms.
“We found fertile eggs and the machine we bought produces about 1,070 chickens per 21 days,” she said.
The emerging farm started off with 400 eggs but only 200 of them hatched.
They now have 800 chickens and 100 pigs.
Desemele said they struggled to access markets to sell their products, however.
Because of this, she feels that those who buy from them take advantage of their lack of knowledge.
“I can say we get abused because our chickens are very big but we sell them off for R60 per chicken.
“Because we’re desperate and don’t have help, we end up giving them away for R60.
“Our chickens grow naturally, they are not forced. We produce enough to sell but don’t have a market and don’t know what to do.
“We produce enough and we produce good meat but for some reason, it’s not growing.
“I don’t know if it’s because we’re black or we simply don’t have enough information – even though we know how to run things, we’re probably not capable of selling to consumers and potential clients.”
The mother of six said the only assistance they had received from the government was 85 bags of chicken feed and a fence to fence off the farm.She said her love for farming came from watching her parents who were farmers in Dutywa.
“People in the old Transkei never realised they could make money from planting vegetables and farming. At a certain point, I realised I could make a living from this and I’ve been trying since 2015,” she said.
One of the additional challenges Desemele faces is that there is not an abattoir in Aberdeen.
She said it was a problem when potential clients asked her where she slaughtered her animals.
Desemele said the pressure of being the leader was that she needed to produce results but all she heard when she approached government departments was that “we’ve assisted Mr So and So because they farm with goats and the Karoo is a place for goat farming”.
“I don’t see why the Karoo can’t farm pigs because there’s nothing wrong with them.
“I’ve got more than 100 pigs here and I’m also farming with chickens and there’s more than 800 chickens and there’s nothing wrong with them, but noone seems to want to listen.
“It’s like I’m talking nonsense. Maybe if I was a man then people would listen,” she said.
“I hear the government is helping females but here I am, a black female farmer, and I’ve never received anything.”
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