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Abstract:
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The purpose of the study was to analyse the poultry value chain in the Mopani district in order to identify factors,
challenges/constraints and opportunities required for its efficiency. The Greater Tzaneen Municipality was chosen
as a research area, as it was a good representative of the Mopani District. The stakeholders in the Greater Tzaneen
Municipality that had an effect and/or were affected by the poultry value chain were identified. The Agricultural
Research for Development tools, such as semi-structured interviews, were used to collect the information from
identified stakeholders.
The study reported four categories of farmers, i.e. the contract growers, the small-scale farmers with assured
market, the infrastructure subsidized farmers and the resource poor farmers. The challenges and opportunities
vary according to the categories of these farmers. The major challenge, with the contract growers, was to operate
under a closed system with uncertain profits, however had assured markets, paid their loans and had opportunities
to increase their production for better profits. Amongst other challenges the contract-farmers faced were theft,
lack of technical and marketing skills.
Small-scale and resource-poor farmers were identified to be operating under an open system; however, they
have poor infrastructure, uncertain quality of outputs, and lack of market and production inconsistency.
The advantage for these groups is that they own the live poultry market, and the opportunity arises for the
farmers to be placed under mentorship and be organized for better input prices and formal market accessibility.
It was concluded that the poultry value chain in the Greater Tzaneen municipality has challenges, and if addressed
properly the value chain could be efficient. The study further concludes that the mentorship programme that was
introduced for the farmers seem perfect for the purpose intended for (i.e. repayment of the loans), however it
recommend that the contract the farmers are contracted to, should be thoroughly screened, and distributed
equitably to mentors in order to ensure competitiveness and profitability for the farming business and to prevent
monopoly of the sector within the district. |