Veterinary services key to unlocking livestock economic opportunities in rural areas
To unlock the small-scale livestock economy in rural villages, as a matter of urgency, the country needs the implementation of a veterinary services plan and the national Animal Identification Recording and Traceability (AIRT) system.
Since 1994, government has committed to addressing the shortage of scarce skills in many rural parts of the country. Veterinary service is one of the scarce skills in communal areas. Approximately 20 years ago, Cabinet approved the concept of one-year compulsory services to address the shortage of doctors.
The aim of the compulsory service in the veterinary services is to provide medical support to the estimated 1.3 million small scale farmers. It is worrying that the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) is not transparent regarding the successes and the failures in this regard.
According to the National Agricultural Marketing Council’s (NAMC) South African Beef Market Value (2018) livestock GDP contribution to agriculture accounts for 49% whilst the livestock contribution to the national GDP is 1.1%. Whilst these numbers are significant, the agriculture departmental budget allocation as a percentage of total national budget allocation has been declining since 1990 from 4.2% to 1.9% in 2019. In its 2014 South African Performance Veterinary Services (PVS) Gap Analysis report, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) stated that the stability and development of many countries depends on the performance of their agriculture sector.
There are many negative findings in this PVS Gap Analysis report which government must still address. The report acknowledged that the government of South Africa has a formal constitutional structure with the stakeholders at national level but less at provincial, district and communal levels. The communal farmers find it very difficult to locate veterinary and many agriculture related services. This is due to the lack of visibility of these structures in villages. The South African Veterinary Strategy (2016) indicates that 70% of the veterinary practitioners are operating in private practice in urban areas. This demonstrates that the government is not providing a conducive climate for veterinary practitioners to operate in the public sector.
The National Development Plan (NDP) (2011) on agriculture included cattle, poultry and pork as high growth potential for agricultural growth and employment. The devil in this regard is in the details. The Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza, advertised 700 000 ha of State land for agricultural lease purposes. According to the NDP on Integrated and Inclusive Rural Economy there is an estimated 1.2 million South African households with access to ≤ 0.5 ha to ≤10 ha of land to farm on. Most of these small-scale farmers farm with small to large livestock, either in their back yards or on small pieces of land with no veterinary services or plant health support whatsoever.
It is estimated that 40% of the livestock in the country is found in communal areas. The economic potential is huge if government cared to collate and manage the data in this regard. Managing data would allow the government to develop programmes and support systems that address the challenges which would liberate the people to participate in the economy freely and independently. Minister Didiza’s R1.2 billion towards the 75 000 food gardens is not addressing the big elephant in the room but is creating a further dependency culture.
To improve the rural economy, especially in communal farming enterprises, government needs to review its policies, implementation plans and support programmes towards small-scale farmers and farming communities. Veterinary services and the AIRT system are crucial to ensure the quality of meat products. Stimulus packages on their own are not going to solve the problem. It is the quality of meat products that are going to improve sales with national retailers and increase required meat export opportunities that will remove a higher dependency on government providing annual support.
To stimulate the livestock rural economy, government must go back to basics and ensure that there are:
- enough governmental veterinary services support per livestock unit;
- dip tanks in rural communities;
- proper stakeholder engagements with communities farming on communal land;
- access to veterinary services;
- proper and effective policing to reduce livestock theft; and
- an improvement of local responses to animal diseases such as FMD and bovine tuberculosis with less red tapes.
During the period of 2008 to 2013, South Africa was a FMD zone area and the country imported more beef than it exported during that period. When it was declared as a FMD free zone in 2014 by the OIE, our beef exports rose to eclipse the imports once more. The implementation of good policies on animal disease management and heeding advice from OIE are the key medicinal ingredients towards realizing a transformed, integrated, and inclusive rural economy without forcing citizens into farming group schemes.
Noko Masipa MP, DA Member on the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform & Rural Development
