15 Apr 2024

Albeit at a snail’s pace, preparations are gradually gaining momentum to get smallstock farmers organised enough to sustainably supply quality stock to the almost complete Tsabong Multispecies Abattoir.

As the state-of-the-art facility, which has a capacity to slaughter either 300 small stock or 60 cattle per day nears completion, eager beavers within the small stock sub-sector are keeping their ears to the ground and positioning themselves appropriately in readiness to supply.

Molopo Smallstock Farmers Marketing Cooperative is one of those that keenly await the take-off of the golden opportunity that the opening of the abattoir will bring about. 

The cooperative’s chairperson, Mr Leo Tumaeletse says it is not rocket science that to get the ball rolling, stakeholders, especially farmers, get their ‘ducks in a row’ if the national cash cow is to run successfully.

“Behind the scenes, we are organising ourselves as farmers because we know that divided we fall but united we stand,” says Mr Tumaeletse, highlighting that the common challenges of water shortage to support smallstock rearing and the lack of markets for their produce prompted their decision to work together as a block.

To their cooperative society, farmers being properly organised is of paramount importance as it gives weight to their advocacy on issues pertinent to the growth and success of the sector.

Mr Tumaeletse traces their efforts to working together as a collective to 2007 when local small stock farmers began to organise themselves by forming an association to advocate for the construction of an abattoir.

After their initial efforts resulted in government in 2009 promising them an abattoir, they registered the association as a cooperative society, after which they undertook benchmarking missions to neighbouring countries to learn best practices from those who were doing well in the small stock farming business. 

“Assisted by government, we went on benchmarking missions in Namibia, South Africa and at the Botswana Meat Commission to see how small stock abattoirs were operated,” he said.

While the Molopo Smallstock Farmers Marketing Cooperative was hopeful that the abattoir would be constructed back in 2019, they accepted as valid circumstances that cropped up along the way such as the need to change the project scope.

Mr Tumaeletse recalls how they were expecting a small abattoir to cater just for the district, only for government to bring about a bigger and better project of national significance.

Now a national asset, the abattoir will address farmers’ yearning for better and extensive markets and finally put to bed the challenges that emanated from the absence of slaughter facilities in the district.

“Sometimes we came together as farmers and loaded about 100 sheep and goats to take to market in Gaborone, but it was a challenge as there was no slaughter facility there with a capacity to slaughter 100 animals in a day,” he said, recounting how their past efforts to source markets for their smallstock had failed.

Such arrangements often saw buyers take only about 20 animals, forcing farmers to spend days trying to find where else to slaughter the rest of the animals.

With buyers alive to this challenge, many took advantage of the situation by forcing the buying price down, resulting in farmers giving up on pursuing the idea any further due to constant losses.

“It was a nightmare to sell in the city. Sometimes when we took our smallstock there buyers told us that their fridges were full,” he recalls.

The unsatisfactory returns compelled the cooperative to then permit members to sell independently while they continued to work with government to ensure that the Tsabong Multispecies aAbattoir came to life.

Nonetheless, Mr Tumaeletse looks back with contentment that as they await the launch of the abattoir in a few months, farmers have risen to the occasion in terms of improving both the quality and quantity of their produce.

That notwithstanding, a few loose ends need tying up before the abattoir starts operating and those include farmers’ training on entrepreneurship as well as business and commerce skills.

“We need to impart a change of mindset in farmers in order for them to do farming differently by moving away from conventional ways of doing things to farming in a modern way, where farming is treated as a business,” he said.

As part of its strategy to get ready, the association has applied for 25-hectare chunks of land from which mini clusters of farmers would operate.

The land will be used collectively by the small group of farmers as a centre where their smallstock would be collected from for sale to the abattoir and where they shall conduct the rest of the activities relating to their smallstock farming venture.

The strategy, learnt from farmers in South Africa’s Eastern Cape region is expected to work successfully for the 80-man strong association.

On the other hand, the relatively new Werda Smallstock Association is also busy trying to position itself to make good use of the Tsabong abattoir.

Its chairperson, Mr Joseph Louw is optimistic that despite having been established as recently as March 2022, the association is making good progress.

“We are starting to be organised as farmers though we are moving at a snail’s pace. This is because to us this is a new concept, therefore it is a learning curve to get properly acquainted with how smallstock associations operate,” he said.  With 32 members under its fold, Mr Louw is confident that the association will help them speak with one voice, especially with regard to setting the buying price of their animals.

Their findings on smallstock prices in some SADC countries being as high as P2 500 per live goat while locally the price could go as low as P800 forced them to form the association so as to draw strength from their numbers when advocating for better returns for their animals.

For them, the construction of the abattoir in Tsabong brought small stock markets to their doorstep, giving them hope for better prices.

“We need to meet the international market export requirements and such include improving on livestock traceability, which is necessary in order to sell,” he said.

The Werda Smallstock Association, which operates under the ambit of the Smallstock Industry Federation of Botswana is also keen on the improvement of the legislative framework that governs small stock associations and sees such a move as a step in the right direction. ENDS