25 Mar 2021

People have different ways of coping with loss, especially loosing something cherished and loved.

While some people fail to survive loss, there are those who take loss as a challenge to reshape their plans and youthful smallstock breeder, Ms Elizabeth John of Ditladi is one of those.

Ms John is still reeling from the loss of her only male boar goat, a valuable gift donated to her by President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi through his smallstock industry promotion initiatives to help smallstock farmers close food security gaps in the country.

Her passion for smallstock business won the president’s heart hence the gift, an exertion to help her to multiply her smallstock and help feed the nation.

Ms John vividly recalls the day when her buck, named Peo, succumbed to death.

Such as its name Peo, Ms John hoped for the buck to produce many offsprings as possible.

“The day before Peo died, he had shown signs of laziness and had lost interest towards the females at all. 

I knew then that something was wrong.”

She said the following day on November 9, 2020, Peo was no more, hardly three months after being donated to her.

“How can I lose such a gift from the President,” quizzed the teary farmer.

She equates the gift to a Presidential Honour, hence her broken heart.

After the ordeal she phoned officials of the Department of Animal Health and Production, who immediately rushed to the scene to investigate the death of her asset.

A day later she was informed that Peo had died of heart water disease.

The young farmer is devastated by the fact that she sold her only buck after receiving the donation and presently has nothing to multiply her smallstock with. 

“I was left speechless. I could not believe it,” said Ms John whom in 2017 was assisted by Youth Development Fund (YDF) with over P99 000 as startup capital for her goat production. 

The funds enabled her to buy 50 goats.

Initially, officials from the animal production department had informed her that because of the change of environment, it was necessary for her to give it a liquid Teri Masan after every five days so that it could adapt to the new environment.

As she had little or no knowledge of how to take care of a Boer goat, she believed a powdered Teri Masan would help, but unfortunately it did not, leaving her with shattered dreams.

She said the smallstock production industry has quick returns, and was hoping to go far with the help of Peo.

Unlike other young people crying of lack of land to run their businesses, Ms John was fortunate as her mother gave her a piece of land from her field to use for rearing the goats, something she expressed gratitude for.

“My mother gave me one hectare to use for rearing these goats and it is really a blessing,” she added.

Though about 13 goats died and some got lost, Ms John was humbled by the assistance she got from government, including her dead Boar goat.

“Our government really supports us and we must commit by properly utilising whatever we receive from our government,” she added.

Despite the loss the youngster is more determined that her dreams in the smallstock industry would not be shattered, and is planning to sell some of her goats to replace Peo, a breed that she loved for its quality.  

In the meantime, Ms John borrows a buck from family members to continue multiplying her smallstock.  

She sees herself as a master farmer in smallstock industry in the next three years despite any challenges that she may encounter on her journey.

Ms John advised other beneficiaries of the President’s initiatives not to despair whenever they encounter similar challenges as hers because ‘Rome was not built in a day’.

Having only paid back P10 000 so far to YDF, she is optimistic that if she still had the Boer goat she would have been able to raise enough money to pay off the debt because the money is needed to assist other beneficiaries..

However, all is not lost because Peo left 10 offspring, three females and seven males, which are capable of doing the job.

“Even though I only had the buck for three months, I’m relieved that I have its off kids, which carry some of its genes that can still be very useful to increase my production,” she added.

 

Last year, President Masisi came up with a personal initiative to support smallstock  farmers that showed potential in the smallstock industry after he secured markets for sheep and goat meat in Saudi Arabia and Norway. ENDS