MEC Desbo Mohono of Agriculture and Rural Development in the North West Province has welcomed the completion of the first departmental owned poultry abattoir in the province.
The facility is situated at Kgora Farmers Training Centre near Mahikeng and it is the first of many projects currently on-going at Kgora to be completed.
This abattoir can slaughter up to 500 birds a day and it operates fully under the supervision of an independent meat inspector as it is a requirement by the law. It is also fully compliant and has been registered as a low throughput abattoir.
The facility is already benefiting the local farmers whose majority are newcomers to the poultry industry. These are mainly farmers with limited resources and who cannot afford private abattoir services costs.
One of them is Sipho Khoza from Bodibe Village outside Mahikeng. Khoza runs a poultry business and has employed seventeen (17) temporary workers. He has used the facility to slaughter his chickens and is happy about the quality of services he has received.
“I brought to the facility two hundred (200) chickens from my farm for slaughtering at this abattoir and after the service all I can say is that I was happy. All of the chickens were sold to one of the local shops on the same day. I will definitely call again,” Khoza expressed.
Another farmer, Keatlaretse Mosiane from Ramatlabama, praised the department for building a slaughterhouse that accommodates them as emerging poultry farmers.
“It was thoughtful of government to build such an infrastructure to promote us emerging farmers,” Mosiane said
She went on to say at some stage she wanted to use one of the privately owned abattoirs to slaughter her chickens but she could not. She was told that the abattoir can only slaughter a minimum of one thousand (1000) chickens and she had only two hundred (200) then.
“We are grateful for this facility and what the department has done for us as emerging farmers,” Mosiane , who is the founder and owner of Keatlaretse Tumediso Farming said.
The abattoir is also used to train university students. Recently, the International Meat Quality Assurance Services (IMQAS) trained a group of over fifty (50) third year animal health students from North West University in this facility and they want to bring other universities.
Giving thumbs up to this newly established facility, MEC Mohono said the facility is one of many important interventions by her department aimed to improve the lives of communities in the rural areas through infrastructure development.
“Among the department’s goals with the establishment of facilities of this kind, is to give local food producers a platform to grow their businesses, the local economy and to create job opportunities,” Mohono said.
“We have a meat inspector at the abattoir so we can confidently say to the farmers who are bringing in their chickens for slaughter that we are slaughtering under proper hygienic conditions,” MEC Mohono emphasised.
Other than that, MEC Mohono wishes to inform farmers that the facility stands ready to be used to train farmers who own or want to own a poultry abattoir.
For training offered at the Kgora Farmers Training Centre and all other requirements to utilise this departmental owned facility, farmers are encouraged to enquire with State Extension Officers or with their local agricultural area offices.
Source: Government of South Africa