Zimbabwean refugee farmer Martin Fick of Salem Agribusiness Company, together with Christian organisation Khula Sizwe, have kick-started an ostrich production programme that’s transforming the lives of small-scale farmers in the former Ciskei. As Mike Burgess learned, the success of the project lies in securing individual productive ownership, rather than throwing money at a communal initiative and hoping for the best.
Salem Agribusiness Company (Pty) Ltd, Martin Fick’s commercial ostrich and feed mill enterprise near Salem in the Eastern Cape, was born in the anarchy of Zimbabwe a few years back, when lost practically everything. A cycle of intimidation, assault and murder led up to the Ficks’ departure from Zimbabwe. But today Martin, a devout Christian, still reaches out to the poorest of the poor in the former Ciskei – directly motivated by his faith and the scriptures, he says. Driving to the Tyefu region of the former Ciskei and crossing the Fish River, the old Ciskei/South Africa border, the differences between the western commercial and eastern communal banks are stark.
The delicate valley bushveld on the old Ciskei side has all but disappeared from the lower-lying areas, transforming them into a virtual semi-desert. It isn’t surprising, therefore, that chose ostriches to uplift small-scale farmers here. “Ostriches use rocks to grind food and excrete them as soil, to form a thick bed of humus that can be used for vegetable production,” he says.
The upliftment programme
In 2003/04 the first farmers joined Salem Agribusiness Company and Khula Sizwe Christian Development Organisation’s ostrich and rotational vegetable production programme. The programme was partly subsidised by Martin’s feed mill, while infrastructural funding was sourced from the National Department of Agriculture. Today 65 small-scale farmers, supported by the Khula Sizwe Small-Scale Ostrich Farmers Participation Incentive Trust (KSSSOFPI Trust), are farming over 6 000 birds. They’ve entered a joint venture with commercial farmers and other players in the Eastern Cape ostrich industry, including the Grahamstown Ostrich Abattoir, to create the Integrated Meat Processors of the Eastern Cape (IMPEC), of which KSSSOFPI Trust owns 49% and their commercial partners 51%. IMPEC gives these farmers access to a market, and their success has drawn the serious attention of national and provincial government.
The Eastern Cape Department of Agriculture has now awarded them over R30 million for infrastructural development to build feedlots and to put another 1 000 farmers in the programme in the next four years. This will bring about better volumes. “The money will pick us up past the critical mass,” says Martin. KSSSOFPI Trust recently received a R9,3 million grant from the national AgriBEE fund, which will be used to build a value-adding, deboning and processing plant. This will compliment the ostrich industry’s existing infrastructure in Grahamstown, including a tannery and abattoir. Martin explains the project can ensure IMPEC becomes the world’s single largest producer of ostriches in the next few years, sourcing 40 000 birds from small-scale farmers and 50 000 from commercial farmers.
A sense of ownership
What makes this project different from so many failed projects before, such as the derelict Tyefu Irrigation Scheme nearby? According to Martin the secret lies in building a sense of ownership among communal farmers, which breeds responsibility, accountability and commitment. If the individuals being helped are keen, it’s not difficult to imagine the effects. For Martin, the departure point was always about what communal farmers owned, and how these resources could be used for agricultural production. “If you don’t define ownership, there’s no sense of ‘this is mine’, and no responsibility or accountability,” he says. He soon found that here in the former Ciskei, almost every household owns at least a 50m2 plot of land and has access to household labour – perfect for ostrich and vegetable production. “You have to approach things in the context of the constraints and demands of the area,” Martin says. Farmers’ sense of productive ownership was enhanced by the facilitation of loans to cover running costs such as management and consultancy inputs, provided by micro-lending institutions such as Uvimba Bank.
Reversing the cycle of dependence
The goal has been to transfer practical skills to individual farmers, allowing them to create their own production environments and manage the rearing of 100 chicks to five months and about 50kg, which are then removed to nearby commercial feedlots. This will ideally generate between R75 000 and R85 000, depending on weight and amount of birds, against total running expenses of about R62 000. Five years later, farmers are achieving results. They have other advantages, like low mortality rates thanks to the lower risk of disease spreading between the isolated groups of ostriches farmed by small-scale farmers. An approach to development that treats the production resources and process as tangible, achievable and owned by individual farmers, is a far cry from the previous group assaults on pie-in-the-sky developmental projects. Generally the conventional route is to pump in money, put in infrastructure for groups and subcontract management for the benefit of the community. But, as Martin explains, fragmenting ownership also fragments responsibility and accountability, and ultimately dependency blooms. In fact, the dependency syndrome is difficult to break in these areas even today. “The grant system here motivates people to do nothing,” explains Martin. Ironically, any project launched in the area must compete with grants, as people will only be interested if they can earn substantially more than the grant system offers. The Salem Agribusiness Company and Khula Sizwe seem to have managed this. Today’s 65 small-scale farmers are to increase to 120 this year.
Producers also need a market to supply. “A product quickly outgrows the market,” warns Martin. IMPEC goes a long way to ensure direct ownership of a market for these small-scale farmers, but Salem Agribusiness Company and Khula Sizwe also facilitate entry into existing local and international markets. “If we didn’t get the best prices for the small-scale farmers, they’d be exploited,” Martin says. With all these structures firmly in place, the recently awarded money can clearly transform the Tyefu area’s agricultural potential. The emerging farmers Mthobeli Maselwa, chairperson of the KSSSOFPI Trust and an ostrich farmer, was one of the first to join the programme back in 2003. Outside his home in Tyefu, his 95 ostriches peer over shade cloth as we chat about his involvement in the project. “I said to Martin we can try, and if there’s a problem in the first year we can leave it,” he recalls. A part-time taxi driver when Martin arrived in the former Ciskei, Mthobeli was sceptical, but little did he know how ostriches would change not only his life but those of many in the region. Last year his birds earned him R16 000 net profit, while some members of KSSSOFPI Trust have doubled that. “Before ostriches I had nothing. Now I have a new taxi,” he says pointing to a battered car, an acquisition that has turned some heads here. “The first year I bought that car people came and asked how they can follow me. I said, ‘Come, I will take you to Martin.’ There are more and more who want to get involved.”
These are exactly the results that Martin hoped for: the long-term empowerment of individuals via the transfer of skills, hard work, responsibility and accountability, as opposed to short-term empowerment via an electronic transfer of money. Owning and sharing skills Successful farmers like Mthobeli can now also, via the ownership of their skills, serve as mentors to beginners. Mthobeli now receives stipends originally paid to the Salem Agribusiness Mentorship division, which incentivise skills development in the community. The same goes for Msokoli Maki, another KSSSOFPI trustee who farms right next to the old Tyefu Irrigation Scheme administration block. Msokoli now mentors farmers around Tyefu on a bicycle that he won from Salem Agribusiness Company and Khula Sizwe, as top farmer on the project a few years ago. “I teach about 21 farmers around here now,” he explains. Msokoli, who earned R17 000 rand last year from his ostriches alone, says his double income has changed his life. “I now have a wife, a house and a bed. Ostriches are good, they bring the money,” he says.
It’s not all plain sailing, though, as ostriches are very difficult to manage, especially when young. “They die by conspiracy and when young, they have to be cared for intensively on a daily basis,” says Martin. Such crisis support, or the lack of it, can mean the difference between disaster and continued production, and the farmers all agree Martin and his six-person mentorship team are but a phone call away. “If the ostriches don’t want to eat, we inoculate them or give them Ikhala (Aloe Ferox). If they still don’t want to eat we phone Martin,” says Mthobeli. Developing individual small-scale farmers to full independence means everything to Martin. “These farmers are running pretty much on their own now,” he says. “I’m happy that I don’t have to be in the photo with Mthobeli – these are his birds, his farm, not ours.”
Contact Salem Agribusiness Company on (046) 622 7656/7 or visit www.khula-sizwe.com.
Salem Agribusiness Company (Pty) Ltd is a commercial agricultural enterprise that also facilitates rural development, in partnership with relevant stakeholders in commercial value chains. Salem Agribusiness Mentorship aims to link projects to existing value chains by identifying potential enterprises and building relevant business plans; sourcing capital for infrastructure running costs and enterprise-specific inputs like seed, chicks, feed, medication etc.; developing access to best-value markets; and ensuring ongoing capacity-building training to ensure successful independent production. Their partner in the project, Khula Sizwe, is a Christian development organisation that focuses on the holistic and sustainable development of rural communities in Southern Africa. Khula Sizwe partners with mentors that provide training and support for small-scale rural entrepreneurs where they live. Khula Sizwe’s ministry has a biblical basis and aims to develop individuals, families and communities holistically.
