daff 2018 web.pdf2 september 2018 daffnews no. 9 departmental editor piwe mbiko (012)daffnews 319...

DAFFOfficial newsletter of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

September 2018

Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Follow on Twitter @DAFF_ZA

DAFF continues to honour female entrepreneurs in the sector

DAFF Minister Senzeni Zokwana, Ms Rose Rakgwale last year’s FEA overall winner, Ms Portia Mngomezulu, Overall winner and winner of the Category: Top Entrepreneur Processing, Mr Innocent Dwayi from I&J and Mr Sizwe Mthembu from Mondi.

September 2018 DAFFnews No. 9 2

Departmental

Editor PiweMbiko (012)3196936 [email protected] LeratoMofokeng (012)3197927 [email protected] SamuelKgatla (012)3197181 [email protected] InnocentMhlanga (012)3197827 [email protected] RonyMoremi (012)3196622 [email protected] JamelaNkanyane (012)3196903 [email protected] MerciaSmith (012)3196666 [email protected] WalterMaja (012)3197819 [email protected] DineoRasekhule (012)3196958 [email protected] SheilaFlockton (012)3197141 [email protected]:www.daff.gov.za

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Mr Senzeni Zokwana, Minister for Agricul-ture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Mr Sfiso Buthelezi, Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Mr Xolile Nqatha, MEC for Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, Eastern Cape Province.

No. 9 DAFFnews September 2018 3

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“To everyone who has a vision, fol-low it with everything you have,” these were the words of Portia Mn-gomezulu after being crowned the Overall Winner of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisher-ies; Female Entrepreneur Awards (DAFF FEA) for the year 2018. The prestigious annual ceremony was held in East London, Eastern Cape in August.

Mngomezulu also received an award in the Top Entrepreneur: Processing category for her international brand, PortiaM. She produces marula skin care products.


By Jamela Nkanyane

The primary objective of the pro-gramme is to recognise women, young females and women with disabilities for the role they play in contributing towards food security, poverty allevia-tion, job creation and economic growth in the sector.

In his keynote address, Minister Senzeni Zokwana encouraged com-panies to implement transformation in the processing sector by mentor-ing and assisting farmers to grow. “I hear that few women are in process-ing. They will not be in processing un-less government does what it should be doing to make sure that they are in

processing,” he said.The programme recognises women

in seven other categories. Bhekisephi Xulu from KwaZulu-Natal walked away the Best Female Worker while Esther Nell from the Northern Cape was awarded the Best Subsistence Pro-ducer. In the Top Entrepreneur: Small-holder category the winner was Lean-dre Mitchley from the Western Cape. Paulina Maleka from Limpopo took home the Top Entrepreneur: Commer-cial award while Noluthando Mbilase from the Eastern Cape was awarded

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Female Entrepreneur winners with the Minister and Deputy Minister.


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theTop Entrepreneur: Export Markets. The competition also recognises two Ministerial Awards for Young Female Entrepreneur, which went to 32-year-old Nosiphiwo Makhapela from the Eastern Cape. The second Minsterial award for Disabled Female Entrepre-neur went to 71-year-old Mphedziseni Mulovhedzi from Limpopo.

The winners also received prize money sponsored by different com-panies including financial institutions

and are encouraged to use it to im-prove their enterprises.

Total South Africa, the main spon-sor of the programme said in a state-ment, “Total believes that women have what it takes to excel and grow in business with the right support as well as capacity building. We would like to congratulate every woman who participated in the competition, while there is only one winner; all of the participants are making a change

and playing an important role in com-munities. You have planted a seed of growth, ingenuity and ambition in the hearts and minds of many other wom-en; that alone, has to be celebrated as success.”

Other sponsors of the programme are Omnia, Old Mutual, Mondi, Stand-ard Bank and Distell. The awards ceremony was co-hosted with the Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform.

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BEST FEMALE WORKER: KZN - Bhekisephi Xulu

Ms Bhekisephi Xulu known as “Shorty” was-born in Yanguye, Melmoth just outside Eshowe, her highest level of education is grade 4 which she completed at the age of 14.

She started working as a general farm worker in 1981 at the age of 23 when her father, who was their sole source of income and a bread winner, passed on. In 1986 she was promoted to a supervisor position

where she supervised 30 workers on the citrus and sugarcane produc-tion fields. The farm changed man-agement two times and all the new owners confirmed her position as the senior supervisor or Induna. She cur-rently supervises 98 staff (58 women and 40 men) on the 103ha farm and is a leader on and off the farm. The farm produces 70ha of Bananas, 20ha of Flowers / Proteas, 13ha of vegetables (butternut, sweet potato,

and Amadumbe). Bheki’s main du-ties are to ensure that the bananas and flowers meet both the export and local market requirements. She fur-thermore plans the daily work activi-ties of the workers and ensures that everyone understands exactly what has to be done and when. She trains new workers on the open fields as well as at the packhouse and advises managers on better ways to increase returns.

Women economic empowerment – a priority in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries sector

Ms Nyameka Makonya from Total SA, Ms Bhekisephi Xulu whowith Ms Bhekisphi Xulu, winner of the category: Best Female Worker and Mr Zama Xolisa from NAMC.


Departmental

BEST SUBSISTENCE PRODUCER: NC - Esther Nell

Esther Nell is a member of Pella Food Garden Project from Na-makwa in the Northern Cape which started in 2003 and consists of two components of vegetables and aq-uaponics.

This project is managed by 5 wom-en consisting of a young person and a person living with a disability. They received 2ha from the local Author-ity for free and in 2017 Old Mutual Foundation INMED supported them with 0,25ha shade net, drip irriga-tion system, seedlings to establish a nursery and aquaponics. INMED

also provided them with necessary garden tools as well as training and included other community members. Pella Food Garden produces vegeta-bles organically. They have recently developed structures for aquapon-ics (the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics) that plants fish as well as other plants in one integrated system. The fish waste provides or-ganic food source for the plants, and the plants naturally filter the water for the fish. They sell the little surplus to the community in order to sustain the project.

TOP ENTREPRENEUR SMALLHOLDER: WC - Leandre Mitchley

Leandre Mitchley established LS Pig Farming on municipal land where she was evicted in 2015. She was able to lease land from a commercial farmer for 9 years and 11months.

This project received grant sup-port from DAFF’s CASP funding in 2015/16 financial year for a pig pro-duction unit, Pigs, Feed and infra-structure. A Pigsty for a 22 sow unit was set up but due to high mainte-

nance costs, it was changed into a Pig Grower Unit of 200 Pigs capac-ity. She buys 6 week old piglets from breeder farmers and grows them out for 19 weeks to slaughter-ready pork-ers at Roelcor Abbattoir in Malsmes-bury. Leandre’s project is doing well and receives on-going extension and advisory support from the Depart-ment of Agriculture.

She has employed one young per-manent worker.

TOP ENTREPRENEUR PROCESSING:GP - Portia MngomezuluDAFF FEA 2018 Overall Winner

Matshidiso Portia Mngomezulu is a qualified IT engineer who es-tablished and legally registered Sibahle Skin Solution in 2011 trad-ing as PortiaM as an international brand.

She was motivated to start a maru-la skin care products after she had her first child and developed stretch marks by her mother in-law who ad-vised her to try Marula oil and later saw stretch marks fading away. She then started selling Marula oil to her friends and relatives targeting preg-nant women. She marketed her prod-

ucts through social media and re-ceived a positive feedback. Portia M products are dermatologically tested in Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (previously MEDUNSA) through SABS. She currently sup-plies 1200 major retail stores across 5 countries (South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland) such as Makro, Game, Pick n pay, Checkers, Shoprite and Clicks. She employs 27 permanent workers and 13 temporary workers (23 youth, 20 women and 7 men) and her employ-ees are offered trainings.


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TOP ENTREPRENEUR COMMERCIAL: LP - Paulina Maleka

Paulina Dorcas Maleka started farming in 2008 in Mookgopong municipality under Waterberg dis-trict with 06 members but she is the only active member and the sole di-rector of the Gagesho project.

The extent of the farm is 256.971 ha and she produces sunflower on 220ha, cash crops on 8ha (butter-nut, green pepper, beetroot, spinach and carrots) and buffalo grass for her livestock on 20ha. She sells to formal

markets such as Tshwane Market, lo-cal Spars and Mokopane Supermar-ket. She currently employs (10) per-manent workers out of which 5 are youth and 70 seasonal workers com-prising of 40 youth & women.

Ms Paulina Maleka, winner of the category: Top Entrepreneur Com-mercial.

TOP ENTREPRENEUR EXPORT MARKETS: EC - Noluthando Mbilase

Noluthando Mbilase was a field of-ficer in 1989 under Ulimocor and in 1996 she was made a manager at the Crenford farm.

When Ulimocor was liquidated in1997 she took over as the owner of the farm as part of women em-powerment initiative. She then took over the farm under Ulimocor par-astatal and named it Greenwood farm. She inherited a 62ha farm that was badly managed, trees were dry and non-productive and using her ex-perience she revived the farm as she introduced new cultivars, as well as

new management practices and col-laborations. She farms with citrus in a 19ha and also produces satsuma trees. The farm produces variety of Oranges that are GAP and SABS ap-proved. She is exporting 70% of her fruits to UK, Europe, Canada, Middle East, Far East, China and Russia. She employs over 70 people season-ally and 13 permanent workers com-prising of a person living with disabil-ity, 09 youth and 3 women.


Departmental

Young Female Entrepreneur: EC - Nosiphiwo Makhapela

Nosiphiwo Makhapela is a 32 year old young female entrepreneur who together with other 5 members es-tablished Sobanjwa Zinkwenkwezi Co-op in 2013.

The Coop is situated in Kamastone in Whittlesea area under Enoch Ngi-jima Local Municipality. The project is made up of 5 young members com-prising of 4 Females (80% and 1 Male

20%). It is a registered Coop that aims to reduce poverty & create job oppor-tunities.

They received 104 ewes and 4 rams from CH. The Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform supported them with Feed, Protein blocks, Jojo tank and 2 Dohne Me-rino rams. Members attended the wool sorting and classing workshop

Disabled Female Entrepreneur: Limpopo - Selinah Mulovhedzi

Selinah Mphedziseni Mulovhedzi is a disabled lady who grew up in Vondwe. She started growing seedlings at home as a niche be-cause she realised that it’s difficult to get seedlings around her com-munity.

She started by planting Chinese spinach and Swiss chard seedlings planted at the backyard and then also sells the complete crops to the local community. Due to the high de-mand, she went to tribal authority and requested a 2ha of land for expan-sion which was approved. The DTI in 2013 granted her funds and as-sisted her with the following; 10 000L Jojo Tank, Constructed fence for 2ha area, Poles and nets for the nursery

and 200 seedlings trays. She started working with one woman and after the nursery expanded she employed 17 more women (12 Seasonal and 5 permanent) and they produce quality seedlings. Her nursery produces 200 trays of cabbage, Chinese spinach, shade and tomato, 100 trays of green paper and onions.

She encourages and trains learners in nursery and field crops production from surrounding high schools. Her markets for seedlings includes near-by villages and schools for nutrition programmes.

at Grootfontein Agricultural College. They mainly produce wool, hay for an-imal feed, bales, castrated rams and sell to BKB in Queenstown and ewes to households in the surrounding vil-lages. They contribute to the com-munity by educating them on animal health care and further contribute to assisting on veld management in the area.

DAFF Minister Senzeni Zokwana, Ms Keneilwe Nailana, Senior Man-ager of Standard Bank: Agribusi-ness Insights with Ms Nosiphiwo Makhapela Young Female Entrepre-neur Category winner and Mr Sfiso Buthelezi, Deputy Minister of DAFF.


Departmental

The Department of Agriculture, For-estry and Fisheries (DAFF) hosted a workshop to discuss the review of the National Control Measures R.110 of 27 January 1984 as amend-ed in relation to regulated pests af-fecting the potato industry.

Although the workshop’s main goal was to review and discuss the possible amendment of the R. 110 of the Agri-cultural Pests Act, 1983 (Act No. 36 of 1983), the emphasis was on the regu-lations of certain pests that affect the potato industry. Control Measures R. 110 provide for national control meas-ures of pests of plants, plant products and other regulated articles thereby prohibiting the movement of plant material from infected areas to non-infected areas. The workshop featured various directorates within DAFF and academics among other stakeholders.

DAFF Plant Health Manager Poli-cies, Norms and Standards Mr Maan-da Rambauli (Chairperson of the workshop) said the workshop was also motivated by the results and dis-cussions from the Potato Quarantine Pests Committee meeting (PQPC) that sits from time to time to discuss the is-sues affecting the potato industry. The workshops was also aimed at resolv-ing and proposing the regulatory sta-tus of potatoes quarantine pests which are Ralstonia solanacearum (Bacte-

DAFF Plant Health Directorate and Stakeholders discuss the review of the Control Measures R. 110 of 27 January 1984 as amended in relation to certain regulated pests

By Dineo Rasekhula

rial Wilt), Synchytrium endobioticum (Wart Disease) and Globodera ros-tonchiensis (Golden Cyst nematode), and to determine the pest status in the country. “We are looking at how best the government can review the current regulation in order to improve and sup-port food security in the country” Ram-bauli.

The Agricultural Pest Act was prom-ulgated in 1983 (Act No. 36 of 1983), the purpose of the Act is to provide for measures by which agricultural pests may be prevented and combated; and for matters connected therewith. The Act empowers the DAFF inspectors and/or authorised official to inspect any plants or plants products that en-ter the country to ensure that they do not bring new pests. The Act also re-quires user of land and/or citizens to obtain permits and/or authorisation from the executive officer of the APA /authority (DAFF) when they need to import plants or plants products. The law also requires farmers or land users to report any occurrence or suspected occurrence of the Bacterial wilt, wart diseases of potatoes and golden cyst nematode that they see or suspect to the department.

DAFF’s Plant Heath Manager Early Warning System Mr Jan Hendrik Ven-ter provided the Pests Status surveil-lance report in relation to the three

pests that affect the potato industry as follows:• BacterialWilt

Bacterial Wilt is present in South Af-rica since 1914 and has been reported in several areas in South Africa be-fore 1931. The disease was reported on several commercial hosts such as potato, tomato, tobacco and several weed species. Several surveys were done by researchers and DAFF col-laborated with the Potato Certification Scheme (PCS) to establish a system where confirmed cases are monitored. Mr Janhendrik Venter indicated that al-though the status of Bacterial Wilt on potatoes in South Africa is present, it is well managed. The pest’s most im-portant hosts are banana (Moko dis-ease), potatoes (brown rot), eggplants, groundnut, sunflower, tomato and to-bacco i.e. mostly in the Musaceae and Solanaceae.• WartDiseaseofPotatoes

Mr Jan Hendrik Venter has highlight-ed that there is a question mark re-garding the validity of Table 5 of R.110 of the National Control Measures as amended, and at this stage there is no assurance as whether Wart Disease is still present in the country. “It seems that it is no longer present, however from a general survey it is not conclu-

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sive what the current status of this pest is” Venter added.• PotatoCystNematode

Is a serious pest of South Africa from 1971, it was found present in north of Pretoria and subsequently from small-holdings around Johannesburg and Bon Accord and Strict quarantine was followed. In April 1999, it was reported for the first time in the Western Cape from the Ceres area wherein a system-atic sampling protocol of potato pro-ducing areas between DAFF, the Inde-pendent Certification Council for Seed Potatoes and the ARC, for the pres-ence of PCN was conducted. Since 1 January 2001, registered seed potato plantings in the Sandveld and Ceres regions, and all plantings intended for export throughout South Africa, are sampled on a compulsory basis and from 2005 to 2011 a countrywide sur-vey was undertaken to determine its distribution in South Africa. Action plan for Golden Cyst Nematode monitoring surveys was drafted in 2013.Resolutions

The workshop took a decision to review Table 3 and 5 of the National Control Measures R.110 of 27 Janu-ary 1984 as amended more specifi-cally looking at the magisterial districts, farm’s name, list of varieties, buffer zones, monitoring, and enforcement and to also check as to what informs the 8km distance in checking the pests. The workshop has also agreed on maintaining the status of Bacterial Wilt as a regulated pest in the country, and to check if it is possible for the po-tato schemes to be mandatory.

The workshop has also resoluted to make some amendments on the R. 110, specifically on Table 3 and Table 5 and delegates were assigned with responsibilities to source relevant and critical information relevant to make

amendments to the R. 110. Delegates given responsibilities have been given the timelines to report with the neces-sary information so that the R. 110 can be amended by the end of 2019.

In the meantime land users are ad-vised to follow the provided Control Measures R. 110 to combat and pre-vent the spread of the pests in the country.

Some of the relevant provisions of the Control Measures R.110 as amended are as follows:• No user of land shall remove any

plant or plant product infested or infected or suspected to be in-fested or infected by the regulated pests from any demarcated area or quarantine area to any pest free area.

• No user of land shall, keep, plant or cultivate any potato plant (ex-cluding potato tubers for human consumption) within the eight kilo-metres of the boundaries of the farms (Lydenburg) listed in Table 5 of R. 110.

• No user of land shall remove any plant or plant products from speci-fied infested areas by regulated pest (WDP) to any specified pests free areas in terms of Table 5.

• Exemption from a prohibition: The executive officer may, by means of a removal permit, exempt a user of a land from a prohibition under R. 110 only if phytosanitary and procedures have been taken to re-duce risk.

• Compulsory notification: Every user of land shall report and/or no-tify to the executive officer of any regulated pests in terms of R. 110 in any pest free area.

• Destruction of plants and plant products: If the executive officer has established that plants or plant products have been kept or culti-vated, removed or conveyed con-trary to these control measures, he/she may destroy such plants or plant products or sent back to a specific quarantine area.

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Quick facts about the SA potato industry

• Consumed daily by more than a billion people in the world• Gross value in SA in 2016 was R8 billion• Sixteen production regions mainly in Limpopo, Free State, West-

ern Cape, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern province• A total of 52 722 ha potatoes planted in 2016• Just over 2 million ton of potatoes produced in 2016 with 20 % for

processing 100 000t were exported• In 2015, 9 800ha of seed potatoes registered for certification• Yield varies between 5 and 6.5 million 25kg bags per year• Certified yield per hectare 16.8 tons/ha• South Africa potato seed exports represented 0.7 % of world ex-

ports• Number 8 in the world potato regarding seed exports


Departmental

The Department of Agriculture, For-estry and Fisheries (DAFF) held a special meeting on 2019/19 planting season readiness at Sheraton Hotel, Pretoria. The meeting was attended by provincial departments of agri-culture, DGs of the departments of Cooperative Governance and Tra-ditional Affairs and Rural Develop-ment and Land Reform, Grain SA, Grain Farmers Development As-sociation (GFDA) and other agri-cultural stakeholders. The meeting follows a call by cabinet regarding concerns about lack of growth, pro-duction and land lying fallow.

The aim of the meeting was to build

Planting Season Readiness meeting

By Rony Moremi

up planning among key stakeholders and confirm commitments towards making the 2018/19 planting season a success. All the nine provinces pre-sented on their targets for the plant-ing season, hectares targeted for the 2018/19 planting season as well as the type of commodities targeted accord-ing to the provinces relevant commodi-ties as well as the type of support to be given to farmers.

Addressing the stakeholders, the DG of the DAFF, Mike Mlengana said that there’s a misconception that the gov-ernment is going to take land, he said “we’re not here to take productive land”, we’re only going to make sure that land

that is lying fallow is made productive”. He encouraged all the stakeholders at-tending the meeting that plans that are presented should bring about change, that coordination and partnerships must be strengthened. He said the main aim was to get at least 1000 ha into production in all the provinces and ensure that the plans incorporate job creation for youth.

The Pan African Parliament’s food security ambassador, Dr Brylyne Chit-sunge, who is also a farmer, said her role is to make sure that Africa is food secure and is able to feed itself. She added that she would like to see infor-mation discussed at meetings such as the one held by DAFF; yielding results by transferring technical information to be understandable and easily used by smallholder farmers. She further indi-cated that careful consideration needs to be taken into making sure that after all the targeted hectares are made pro-ductive.

The DG commended good stories coming from the provinces regarding their state of readiness for the plant-ing season such as the Eastern Cape that has sent a vessel of grains from black smallholder farmers to Vietnam through the support of grant from the department, GFDA and Grain SA. Praises also were directed to Mpu-malanga for training young people to do mechanisation on tractors that the department has provided. He further encouraged all stakeholders to work together. It was agreed that a Task Team be established consisting of representatives from DAFF, COGTA, DRDLR, HODs of Provincial Depart-ments of Agriculture, Private Sector and the food security Ambassador.

Mr Mike Mlen-gana, Direc-tor General of DAFF at the meeting on planting season readiness.


Departmental

Director-general Mike Mlengana has called for the assistance of every-one in the agricultural sector to lend hands while addressing the 2018/19 state of readiness planting season meeting between the department of agriculture of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, provincial heads of agriculture and the agricultural sec-tor stakeholders at Burgers Park Hotel. Pretoria.

The meeting was to measure the state of readiness regarding planting season across the country with provin-cial heads of department presenting about how ready they are and some of the challenges they’re coming across with possible solutions. Indications are that the country is 70% ready however that’s only on paper and DDG have been designed to provinces to oversee that process working with COGHSTA and traditional leaders. He also said they should not be threatened by ex-propriation without compensation.

Mlengana emphasised the need to include the small-scale farmers in this process and he has called the public and private partners to assist empow-ering skills officers and training farm-ers. Dr Moeng said there is land that is lying fallow and they’re working with traditional leaders and Coghsta ad-dressing how they can make it produc-tive again. She said municipalities also need to be strengthened as they’re also expected to play important role in this process. “Municipalities must be strengthened so that we know that what we are talking about is real. When we say there are about 40 tractors, 1000 bags of seeds, someone should be there to see if that’s true reflection that is on paper” she said.

A task team has been established from the sector stakeholders from the likes of AgriSA, GrainSA, AFASA, VKB, and DAFF among others. Their task is also to oversee the state of readiness

Meeting measure state readiness regarding planting season

By Walter Maja

and consolidation of this process as they will be working closer in identify-ing the challenges. They will be meet-ing to assess on who focuses on what and where and they will be given man-date.

AgriSA said another 5000 hectares of land except the one that is ready for plantation has been identified and now the challenge is resources be-cause funds are not accessible. They also called for support of existing small scale farmers to become commercial farmers. About 54% of the black farm-ers need financial injection and banks cannot assist them because they don’t have the collateral and Land Bank said

a funding forum has been created to support black farmers.

AFASA has called for transformation in the sector to support black small –scale farmers with resources as they contribute to food security in the coun-try markets. They told AgriSA to give capable and deserving skills and ex-tension officer’s important position so that it can also inspire the upcoming ones which they positively relate well in the positions they wish to see them-selves doing in the sector. All in all provinces are halfway ready for plan-tation season and there is no doubt that if rain fall cannot be unpredictable there would be a lot to harvest.

Dr Jemina Moeng, Chief Di-rector: Food Security at the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Mr Jannie de Villiers, CEO of Grain SA.


Sector

During 2016, the Endangered Wild-life Trust (EWT) fitted satellite track-ing devices to twelve Lesser Fla-mingos in order to understand the flight behaviour of these threatened birds.

The results were surprising, indi-cating long distance nocturnal move-ments that had previously been un-recorded. On 9 June 2016, the EWT recorded the first cross-border move-ment of an individual Lesser Flamingo to Madagascar1. Kucki, named by Es-kom’s Environmental Manager Deidre Herbst, after Kucki Low, the first South African woman to get her commercial pilots license and South Africa’s first female flight instructor in 1970, cov-ered a distance of 1,020km in a sin-gle flight! This flight was done in just under 24 hours. While on Madagascar, Kucki moved up and down the coast, all the while making her way up to Ma-hajanga. During her stay in Madagas-car, she even survived the onslaught of cyclone Dineo, which hit the coast-line in 2017. Then, on 29 May 2018, Kucki finally made her return to main-land Africa, flying from Madagascar to Mozambique, and landing south of Beira. The flight covered a distance of 927km directly over the Mozambican

Dairy goat farmers – and anyone in-terested in small stock dairy – can once again get free advice from the experts at the fifth annual Dairy Goat Information Day on Thursday 11 October 2018 during Agri-Expo Livestock at Sandringham outside Stellenbosch.

According to Breyton Milford, Op-erations Manager at Agri-Expo, the information day is one of the agricul-

Channel. Curiously, her arrival to and departure from Madagascar occurred at the exact same point in the mouth of the Mangoky River.

Over the past two months, she has been getting to know the Mozambican coastline better and we will continue to monitor her movements.

This remarkable journey has raised even more questions around why fla-mingos undertake these movements and what environmental triggers con-tribute to the duration and direction of flights.

The Lesser Flamingo (Phoenico-naias minor) is listed as Near Threat-ened in both the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and in the Eskom Red Data Book of Birds of South Af-rica, Lesotho and Swaziland. One of the known threats to Lesser Flamin-gos is collision with power lines. The EWT, in partnership with Eskom, initi-ated a project to assess the nocturnal movements of these birds, with the aim of mitigating this threat. While conventional bird flight diverters have proved to be effective for bird species that are active during the day, mortali-ties of species that fly at night, such as the Lesser Flamingo, were still being found under marked power lines. This suggested that conventional mitiga-tion may not be effective, and more research needs to conducted.

The project is supported by Eskom Research, Testing and Development. To assist in decreasing the number of bird mortalities on power line in-frastructure, the EWT is encouraging members of the public to report any mortalities of wildlife related to energy infrastructure to its Wildlife and Energy Programme via email at [email protected] or telephonically (toll free) at 0860 111 535.

Kucki the Lesser Flamingo returned to mainland Africa

tural society’s projects to empower and inform new entrants to agriculture, in partnership with the Western Cape Department of Agriculture.

“The aim of the information day is to develop skills, improve market ac-cess and promote sustainability,” says Milford. “This is a valuable opportunity for small stock farmers to learn more about dairy goat farming and the po-tential of this growing industry.”

The Dairy Goat Information Day takes place from 08:00 to 13:00 in the Standard Bank Conference Centre. At-tendance is free of charge, but seating is limited to 120 people. For registra-tion and enquiries, contact Breyton Milford at 021 975 4440 or [email protected].

Agri-Expo Livestock takes place from 11 to 13 October 2018. For more information, visit www.livestock.org.za.

Dairy goat farmers can get free advice

daff 2018 web.pdf2 september 2018 daffnews no. 9 departmental editor piwe mbiko (012)daffnews 319...

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