Steve Felton
28 June 2011
One of a series of short articles about the Rural Poverty Reduction Programme (RPRP), which was funded by the European Union’s 9th Development Fund and coordinated by the National Planning Commission.
IN September 2010 The Namibian reported on a Cabinet briefing which stated that 42 100 people will not be able to meet their minimum food requirements in 2011, including more than 8 000 people in Hardap and Karas.
In the bleak, stony landscape south of Gibeon, Jeanette Swartbooi’s house is as neat as a pin. The beds are made, the floor of local stone is swept and clean. There are succulent plants in flower pots.
It’s hard to imagine that the Cabinet briefing includes Jeanette, her disabled husband and four children.Jeanette used to get by from the milk of five goats, and some income from sewing work; until one day 19 ewe goats and a ram arrived, and Jeanette’s life changed for the better.Conceived as a drought measure, the Small Stock Distribution Programme has become a way to help people out of unemployment and poverty; to survive, and even to thrive. The programme is run by the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry’s extension services, and it received a huge boost through funding from the RPRP. Up to now, 140 beneficiaries have been given live loans in the form of goats.
Jeanette heard about the small stock programme on the radio, and a few weeks later she was chosen to be trained at the Tsumis Arid Zone Agricultural Centre,where she learnt about animal breeding, health, and rangeland management.
All of the trainees were assuming responsibilities for livestock which would officially belong to the Government until the scheme reached the next phase. After four years of successful breeding they should start to return lambs to the Ministry, paying back the twenty they had received. The remaining goats would be theirs.
One of the reasons the project has exceeded expectations is the quality of the animals. The goats were selected by extension technicians, and many of the ewes were pregnant when they arrived at Jeanette’s kraal. Come payback time, the Ministry will pick good quality goats to pass on to other beneficiaries.
Acting chief extension officer for Hardap Region, Desmond Cloete, says that 80 per cent of the beneficiaries coped well.
Goats are ideal because they browse on leaves as well as grazing on grass, of which there is precious little in the area. Goats also return to the kraal themselves at night, and they fetch a better price at auction than sheep, thanks to the South African market.
“The bad farmers complain, the good ones don’t,” says Cloete. “We only had to take the goats back from two people.”
Jeanette’s flock has thrived. She keeps a book with a tally of sales, births, and deaths.
The area has many mortalities due to diarrhoea caused by a virus. A total of 36 goats have died. But that number only reflects the size of the growing flock.
This year Jeanette sold 11 goats for N$7 011, and now she now has 80, including three rams.
“Lives have been changed,” says Cloete, and Jeanette is just one story with a happy ending in Hardap and Karas. Now that she is financially on her feet, Jeanette can spend some of the income paying off debts, buying food, and paying the school fund.
As far as Cloete is concerned, the programme has been a huge success, and there will soon be goats available to pass on to other beneficiaries.
The Ministry has no funds to expand the project at the moment, but Cloete is confident: “After five years we will have the statistics to demonstrate the impact, then we can make a good case for the Ministry or a donor to step in with funding.”
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‘Government Goats’ Keep Hunger at Bay in Hardap