October 28, 2007, 19:45
The Eastern Cape town of Alice, surrounding communities and Fort Hare University students are to benefit from a R20 million commercial dairy farming enterprise.
Commercial farmers have also assisted in setting up the venture which aims to provide a training facility for agriculture students, commercial and emerging farmers, as well as farm workers from all over the African continent.
At the same time it wants to make money. The dairy farm stands on 200 hectares of land that belongs to Fort Hare University. It has a world class milking facility, using the most modern technology around.
Presently about 600 cows are milked daily. The founding company, Amedlelo Agri, is a partnership between commercial farmers from the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal and a black economic empowerment company.
“We got together because of their expertise in farming, we decided to work together and form Amadlelo Agri. It is this company that has partnered with the University of Fort Hare to establish the Fort Hare dairy,” said Amadlelo Agri chairperson Bulelani Ngcuka.
Providing skills and training
The project provides a training and research facility for agriculture students, commercial and emerging farmers, as well as farm workers.
“More importantly to the university, is that it provides us with a cutting edge facility for us to train students, extension officers, dairy managers, researchers not only for South Africa or the province, but for the whole of Africa because this dairy makes us the second university in the world with a true commercial dairy,” said Jan Raats, the executive dean at the faculty of science and agriculture at Fort Hare.
Local communities will also provide about 50 hectares of communal land to the project next year. They will be required to produce maize for cattle feed.
They are also benefiting from employment opportunities created in the development and operational phases. The long term goal is to produce cheese and yoghurt for local and export consumption.
“The vision of this dairy project is to stimulate rural development in food production. We want the dairy to serve local communities, produce milk, cheese, yoghurt and inspire local communities to see the productive capacity of land in Alice and surrounding areas, said Fort Hare outgoing vice chancellor Derrick Swartz.
A second dairy farm will established in Middledrift in three years time.
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