The Rafi project in rural Eastern Cape province is giving developing farmers access to critical enablers of agricultural success, writes Van Der Byl Roux, Corporate Strategy & Development Specialist at Bullseye Konsult.
The Rafi partnership, in conjunction with the Department of Rural Development (DRD) and the Chris Hani district in the Eastern Cape is helping to uplift emerging farmers by providing access to the four main requirements for farmers to succeed in agriculture.
These four requirements are access to land, capital, expertise and markets. Without all four of these aspects being present, it is highly unlikely that a farmer will be able to build a viable business in an extremely challenging sector.
The Eastern Cape has a large livestock industry, though this is largely part of a tradition of communal land ownership and subsistence farming.
Historically, land-reform programmes, have sometimes failed to support beneficiaries with a full suite of opportunities to ensure they have the best possible chance to be sustainable and commercially viable.
Beyond land grants
DRD is often able to help provide beneficiary farmers with access to land. However, there are also opportunities for private-sector businesses to enable emerging farmers to access capital, expertise and markets.
Initiatives such as these can find fertile ground in the Eastern Cape, currently, the province with the largest cattle herd in South Africa. There are roughly 12 million head of cattle in the country, of which 25% are kept in the Eastern Cape.
In the Eastern Cape, herds are often kept in open fields, with minimal feedstock or biosecurity interventions. This is why Nguni cattle are a popular choice of animal – they are hardy and disease-resistant.
A drawback of farming with Nguni cattle is that they do not pick up weight as rapidly as other breeds. This makes Nguni a less commercially viable breed, and makes it difficult for subsistence farmers to make the transition to commercial viability.
The Rafi project empowers emerging farmers by enabling them to transition their herds to the Bonsmara breed, which produces high-quality beef, and performs well in feedlots, while also showing disease resistance.
Real results
Bullseye Konsult, has formed the Rafi partnership with the Eastern Cape government through its significant Agri arm, which has more than R2-billion in agricultural assets under management.
There are currently 20 emerging farmers involved in the project, farming around 3 000 head of Bonsmara cattle. Bullseye Konsult, connects these farmers to its established abattoir and marketing network, helping them generate sales of around R35 million a year.
The project has already created more than 100 jobs, and impacted many more families, as it continues growing. The initiative also has multiplier benefits, as we source local suppliers for feed mix, be it maize or lucerne.
Besides benefiting local economies, there is also potential for Rafi-project farmers to access export markets through the Bullseye Konsult network. Numerous opportunities have recently arisen in the Middle East and South East Asia, for instance.
As we look to grow the upside for the project, Bullseye Konsult is working to expand the downstream infrastructure which determines the expansion potential for the farmers involved. There are only four feedlots in the Eastern Cape, of the 97 across the country; and 12 abattoirs of a total of 40 nationally.
Genetics support
A direct intervention to improve prospects for Rafi farmers has been to improve genetics by making quality bulls available for breeding. The calves produced are moved into the Bullseye Konsult network of centralised grazing areas and feedlots, where cattle make significant daily gains, before they are sold into the market.
By way of illustration, feedlot cattle can gain 1,8 kg per day, whereas open grazing usually only adds 0.6kg per day.
The Rafi Project also provides guidance on the input side, with our team of specialist advisors providing nutritional guidelines to help farmers improve the quality of their herds and convert each cent they invest into profit. Positive returns can then be reinvested.
Rafi project farmers have become part of the Bullseye Konsult Agri biosecurity ecosystem, where every animal’s background is traceable and the health of the herd can be monitored and controlled.
Our Gigalot biosecurity system uses RFID tagging technology, to ensure easily updatable, centralised technology for each animal in the herd. Tags provide information on animal weights, feeding nutrition and a full health record, throughout an animal’s life, as part a robust quality-assurance process.
Bullseye Konsult has assembled a large data set, which spans several market cycles. We give our partners in the Rafi project the benefit of long-term trends we identify through our data.
Scope for growth
By investing in the Agri Fund, Bullseye Konsult investors get exposure to the Rafi venture, and get to support this agricultural development project with a huge upside, in an often-neglected part of the country. The long-term goal is to grow the Rafi project into a stand-alone impact-investment fund.
Relationships with the Eastern Cape government are strong, and we have applied for funding to expand the Eastern Cape’s feedlot and abattoir infrastructure, to support industry growth.
The Rafi model is an exciting one, which is on a healthy growth path. It has proven that this kind of community-based economic model can be replicated in other regions. We look forward to achieving greater scale and continuing to bring emerging farmers into the mainstream of the agriculture economy.
