DRDAR MEC to handover shearing shed in Qaga Village
As part of the Eastern Cape department of rural development and agrarian reform (DRDAR) drive to commercialise emerging and communal farmers by providing the required infrastructure and equipment, DRDAR MEC Nonkqubela Pieters will tomorrow handover a fully equipped shearing shed to woolgrowers
in Qaga village.
The shearing will be officially handed over to the Masimanyane Wool Growers Association which falls under Zwelitsha Wool Growers Association that has 21 woolgrowers associations where DRDAR has properly built nine shearing structures.
The Zwelitsha district has approximately 12 045 sheep and has produced 184 bales from 30 823kgs of wool during the last shearing season.
The Eastern Cape represents a very different market dynamic for wool production and marketing than the rest of the country, with it has about two million head of sheep spread across many smaller sheep herders.
Due to trends in demand for wool at both local and international markets as well as the comparative advantage of the area in sheep rearing, Zwelitsha district decided to invest in wool enterprise with focus on producing wool and taking advantage of the available wool market channels.
Masimanyane is a 100% black owned communally owned project that was established in 2015 and has 53 members of which 32 are males and 21 are women with a total number of 2 100 sheep.
The objective of the project is to be an economically viable wool enterprise that will contribute to the District’s total gross value of agricultural production and rural economy. In the previous production year 2022, the association sold 28 bales to BKB managed to generate an income of R271 747,99.
This renders Masimanyane farmers’ association a financially sound and viable business with a potential to grow. With improvement in production through controlling ticks and good shearing and sorting the total production is expected to increase. The association is currently producing an average of 1.61kg per sheep and
with envisaged improvements are expected to increase this production to an average of 4.5kg / sheep.
This will be achieved as there is an investment to infrastructural development in terms of constructing a shearing shed with equipment and animal handling kraals and small stock dipping facilities.
Members of the media are invited to join the MEC as she brings yet another investment that will ensure the sector is commercialised.
Details of the event
Venue: Qaga Shearing Shed
Date: 20 July 2023
Time: 10 aam
For more imformation contact:
Thozi Manyisana
Cell: 082 494 3600
