PRESS STATEMENT |

MEC NQATHA ENCOURAGES SORGHUM FARMERS TO UNITE 

Issued by DRDAR Communications on 29 May 2018

 

Eastern Cape Rural Development and Agrarian Reform MEC, Xolile Nqatha used his visit to sorghum producing farmers in Cacadu (Lady Frere) to encourage all sorghum farmers to unite and work together to benefit from the economic spin offs of the commercial agriculture value chain.

 

With few weeks to the start of the annual crop harvest, Nqatha visited sorghum fields produced by Zingxondo Cooperatives, which received fertilizers, seeds, chemicals from the Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, production loan from the Eastern Cape Rural Development Agency for the production of Sorghum to be sold to local markets.

 

Nqatha said he was impressed and encouraged by the quality work done by the farmers when he saw their crops outside Cacadu.

 

“This good work makes us encourage all sorghum farmers of Zingxondo, Ibuyambo and other cooperatives to work together because when they work together they will reap big rewards, they will be able to get secure markets for their produce, financial support and to show off good things and works happening in the Eastern Cape province. We will continue supporting them in their work,” said Nqatha.

 

He said his department will continue supporting local farmers who have skills for commercial farming to help them expand commercial agriculture inline with the Agriculture Economic Transformation Strategy of his department.

 

Emalahleni local municipality Mayor, Councillor Nomveliso Nyukwana also encouraged local farmers to join forces in producing sorghum, one of South Africa’s exported crops.

 

“Local farmers play a big role in fighting poverty and in improving local economy in our municipality. I encourage all local farming cooperatives to join the RED Hub which was jointly funded by the provincial government and the Jobs fund for local farmers so that they can all receive assistance and support from relevant government departments,” said Councillor Nyukwana.

 

Chairman of the 37 member strong Zingxondo Cooperative, Velani Jack said as farmers they wanted to harvest their crop and send it straight to the market so that they can expand their production.

 

This will be Zingxondo’s first harvest of the crop after their production was delayed by the recent drought for two production seasons.

 

Jack said they expect to yield at least 50 bags of 50 kilograms of sorghum per hectare from their 74 hectares currently under production with the intention to sell their harvest to Border Seeds who has expressed interest to buy their harvest.

 

“We are optimistic that the buyer will give us a good price for our crop. They just want to see the sample of our crop when we have harvested it. It is not easy to access markets for our produce, we are struggling big time. We can’t sell to the RED hub here because they store their crop and then look for a market. We thought that would hit our crops because while we store it insects can destroy the harvest in the store room,” said Jack.

 

He called on retail buyers to buy their crops saying the cooperative was targeting bulk buyers of the crop and not individual buyers.

 

Emalahleni area is a sorghum producing area of the Eastern Cape province with 5901 hectares suitable for the crop, according to the research conducted by the Agriculture Research Council.

 

The Eastern Cape provincial government has invested millions into another thriving sorghum project in Emalahleni managed by Ibuyambo secondary cooperative made up of 6 primary cooperatives with a combined 456 farmers involved.

 

These farmers run the Emalahleni RED hub, which was funded by the provincial government in partnership with the Jobs fund in 2014 to create jobs, expand agriculture production.

 

The project was also affected by drought and sold its first crop to OVK and Border Seed recently.

 

The department plans to increase number of sorghum hectares under production in the next season to add 1000 hectares of land in Emalahleni through a partnership with Rural Development and Land Reform.

 

According to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ 2016 grain sorghum market value chain profile, 95% of sorghum in South Africa is mainly used for human consumption with 47% used for malting to manufacture traditional African beer commonly known as umqombothi and 49% of sorghum used for meal also known as mabele served as a breakfast cereal or as soured porridge

 

According to the national department, Free State produced 37 % of sorghum, Mpumalanga 40 %, Limpopo province 15 %, North West 4% and, Kwazulu-Natal and Gauteng contributing 2% each in South Africa’s total sorghum production.

 

For more information, please contact:

For Emalahleni Mayor

Luthando Nqumkana

079 702 0166

 

For DRDAR MEC 

Andile Fani

+27 (65) 949-4844

 

Issued by DRDAR Communications.