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SWSC MD’S CATTLE AUCTION RAKES IN E103 000

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MBABANE – Commercial farmers converged at Nkoyoyo to make bids to purchase well fed dairy cattle which raked in E103 000 in the process.


The auction was conducted at the premises of Swaziland Water Services Corporation (SWSC) Managing Director Peter Bhembe on Saturday morning. Watching from a distance while leaning on a bakkie, Bhembe would from time to time advise farmers on why the cattle were a viable buy and how to take good care of cattle in order to assure good production of milk.


“You will get about 24 litres of milk from that one,” Bhembe quipped as the hammer fell on E13 750 for a pregnant four-year-old dairy jersey from a reserve price of E13 750.
The auction was attended by nearly 10 farmers from as far as Ncandweni in the Lubombo region.


First time auction attendee Dumisani Shongwe, who purchased three cattle, said he believed the cattle were a good investment because they were healthy and well taken care of.
Shongwe said he purchased the cattle to increase his milk production capacity at his farm at Hlobane. He disclosed that he currently produces about 4 000 litres of milk per month on average which gets supplied to Parmalat.
“It all depends on the strategy you want to implement,” said Shongwe when asked why he was at the auction.


Another female farmer who bought two cattle from the auction said she was grateful of the business opportunity that had been presented by the auction.  She said what also made the cattle a viable buy was the fact that most of them were pregnant which makes up for a double benefit.


Bhembe referred all questions pertaining to the auction to Aphelele Bhembe who confirmed that E103 000 was raked in from the auction.
An agricultural expert who was also at the auction but requested not to be named because he was not mandated to speak to the media advised that dairy cattle were a good investment considering the fact that the diary industry is under supplied by milk.


Swaziland has been heavily dependent on South Africa for most of its dairy products including milk.


indicated


The Southern African Research Foundation for Economic Development’s (SARFED) George Choongwa pointed out that research indicated that Sub-Saharan Africa was a food-deficit region, with dairy products being particularly in short supply as projections indicated that the region was likely to face 1.9 growth rate per year as compared to the 1.6 decline rate for the rest of the world by the year 2050, subjecting the sub-Saharan to have outdone the global population by about 20 per cent in population growth and subsequently food demand.


“It is, therefore, appropriate to state the milk project would play a significant role in promoting the diary sector in terms of its contribution to food production as the Sub-Saharan Africa’s food production per capita is generally below the world average, except in the case of non-cereal staple food crops with the majority of countries whose population growth is expected to be fast in the future are precisely those showing inadequate food consumption and high levels of undernourishment.

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