The Eastern Cape agriculture department is investing R7m into the construction of a mega piggery in Ncise village in Mthatha, which is expected to provide at least 1,000 pigs per year.
This was revealed last week by the department’s director in the OR Tambo district, Zamile Madyibi, during an information sharing event hosted by Eyoluntu Project Market Agency which operates the Kei Fresh Produce Market, Mthatha’s leading vegetables supplier funded by the Ntinga OR Tambo Development Agency.
Madyibi’s announcement came after Ntinga’s acting CEO, Sandile Sentwa, confirmed the state-funded Umzikantu Abbattoir was currently underutilised and facing an acute shortage of about 3,000 to 4,000 pigs to operate at its maximum capacity.
The abattoir at the heart of Zimbane village outside the Mthatha CBD is described as a high-throughput red meat processing facility operated by Ntinga and is the only operational red meat abattoir in the OR Tambo district.
Sentwa acknowledged the facility was facing a major shortage when it came to the supply of pigs.
Meanwhile, Eyoluntu’s founder and director Melinkqubo Ndabokutya said the Kei Fresh Produce Market was also not getting enough vegetables from the local farmers and bought most products from outside the district.
At least 70% of the produce which was sold at the facility came from other areas, he said.
“We need about 3,000 to 4,000 [pigs] as Ntinga in the abattoir,” Sentwa said.
“It is unbelievable that we do not have that from our area and we have decided to intervene by having an incubation programme of women pig farmers where we can walk with them not for one, but for two or three years.
"We will buy all those pigs as and when they are ready.”
He said even with regard to fresh produce, working with the department of agriculture, they were planning to identify and incubate about 40 farmers across the district to counter the reliance on other areas for vegetables.
The OR Tambo district municipality, via Ntinga, has reportedly invested about R3m as part of its drive to strengthen agricultural production and building local producers capable of participating meaningfully in the district’s economy.
Ntinga intends to invest an additional R1m towards the incubation programme focused particularly on women and young people in pig farming and fresh produce value chains.
“The proposed R1m is intended to serve as catalytic funding rather than operate in isolation,” Sentwa said.
“Ntinga is seeking complementary investment from partners such as the department of agriculture, including the possibility of rand-for-rand support to increase the scale of impact of the intervention.44
"Under the envisaged model, producers will not simply be assisted to produce and then left to search for buyers.
"Ntinga is exploring loan-financing opportunities for enterprises under incubation while deliberately connecting production to existing market demand.”
In the livestock value chain, an envisaged offtake arrangement linked to Ntinga would help create a dependable market for participating farmers while strengthening security of supply for the abattoir.
“A predictable market can strengthen an emerging enterprise's ability to plan production, generate revenue and build a stronger case when approaching development finance institutions for funding," Sentwa said.
"This is also where intergovernmental relations must become visible in the lives of farmers — not different institutions arriving with disconnected interventions, but government investments deliberately reinforcing one another along the same value chain.
"The objective is to move women and young producers from recipients of agricultural support into commercially active participants in the rural economy.”
In 2024, Sentwa said the King Sabata Dalindyebo local municipality was losing at least R1bn every year by purchasing everyday consumables like vegetables, meat, eggs and spinach from outside suppliers, rather than producing them locally.
At least 95% of the products consumed in KSD were imported from outside the OR Tambo district, he estimated at the time.
He lamented that trucks entered KSD daily to “dump products” despite having assets such as the Kei Fresh Produce Market and the Umzikantu Abbattoir, which largely had minimal local activity.
During Friday’s session, which attracted rural farmers from as far afield as Ntabankulu, Nyandeni local municipality mayor Viwe Ndamase said most of the trucks that came into the district to deliver food to retail stores came from Port Shepstone in KwaZulu-Natal.
“We [OR Tambo district] have a population of 1.5-million people and that means there is a huge market already," Ndamase said.
"Hence, other provinces do not think twice about coming with their things here as we are good at buying and not producing for ourselves.”
This was despite the fact that the district had large tracts of unused ploughing land, he said.
Meanwhile, Madyibi said his department, in partnership with Ntinga, had identified 40 farmers in the district to mentor on fruit and vegetable production.
He said the district had immense potential to become a leader in vegetable production.
Ndabokutya said though they bought from farmers, many were producing only cabbage, which saw its price plummet significantly.
He urged farmers to look into producing other crops like potatoes.
Bhaziya village resident and farmer Mzimasi Jalisa, also a board member at Potato SA, said farming was very costly.
You needed at least R50,000 for the primary production of a hectare of cabbage and about R100,000 to produce a hectare of potato.
A farmer also needed machinery like tractors and irrigation systems which necessitated huge investments.
Fellow young farmer Vuyisa Ngcukana said the district had the potential to become the Eastern Cape’s top food basket.
However, OR Tambo district mayor Mesuli Ngqondwana admitted the district was still lagging behind when it came to agriculture.
Daily Dispatch