The Sunday News
Farming issues with Mhlupheki Dube
THE story about the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) breaking new ground in molecular genetics needs to be celebrated.
We need to celebrate Nust for domesticating a technology that is already existing in other countries, hence making it accessible and cheaper. This comes against a background where Nust has also been in the news for domesticating DNA testing and making the process affordable with an immediate result of relieving some men the burden of paying maintenance for children that are not theirs.
This got me thinking about innovations in agriculture in general and livestock in particular. I have said it before that there is a huge innovation gap that needs to be filled by our scientists and academics. I will reiterate the same call in this instalment. In the last two months I have had the fortune of attending a number of district agricultural shows and I could not help but feel cheated.
There is hardly anything agricultural about the shows save for the departments and parastatals that fall under the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development. The show has a fence theme which has no relationship with what is being exhibited. I therefore argue that agricultural shows should be among other things be platforms of showcasing groundbreaking innovations in the sector.
These are innovations that answer to daily challenges and tribulations faced by farmers. Wouldn’t it be nice and refreshing for farmers who are losing livestock daily to predation to visit an agricultural stand and find displays of a new technology that needs to be tested for its efficiency in reducing predation? Instead of crowding display stands with funeral policy providers and ailing parastatals, shouldn’t we have research institutions dominating the scene and displaying numerous prototypes for trials? Couldn’t we have private players coming to market some innovative products that respond to a farmer’s needs?
While I am alive to the fact that agriculture as an industry is supported by a number of service providers who include parastatals for it to operate efficiently, it cannot be disputed that agricultural products, be they inputs or equipment, should take the centre stage.
How do we expect the livestock industry to grow if in three decades there is nothing worth writing home about that has been invented by the scientists and academics decorating offices at our institutions of higher learning? I long to read in the paper of new meaningful innovations in the livestock sectors, something more real and effective than domesticating wild birds and exploiting the desperation of men to cure their impotence and growing crops in sacks when we have abundance of land!
I long to go to an agricultural show and come back loaded with brochures of new agriculture products and equipment up for trials, not to come packed with brochures from loan sharks and funeral specialists.
It is against this background that I would like to celebrate Nust’s achievement because it shows that they have their eyes on the ball and it’s only a matter of time before they fire home. It would be refreshing to read of Lupane State University having broken new ground in some aspect of livestock production. We need new breeds in the livestock sector, it cannot always be the Brahman. We need new thinking in veld management, breed improvement and water harvesting for our livestock.
I therefore call on the ministry or department responsible for organising agricultural shows to put serious thought into the importance of this kind of an event and give it due diligence rather than just doing it to fulfil a calendar date. It’s not just a leisure event but a serious marketing platform for agricultural innovations and that needs to be respected. Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.
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