The Sunday News
Mhlupheki Dube
TRYING to buy breeding heifers has revealed a yawning marketing gap within the livestock industry. Firstly you get very lukewarm responses from social media platforms that interact on livestock matters. This is largely because these platforms are home to a mixed bag of livestock farmers ranging from highly successful stud breeders and commercial herd producers to beginners with less than five animals.
These platforms are also home to extension workers, be they private or public extension workers and most of these are not livestock farmers but are largely interested in keeping abreast with trends in the livestock value chain.
Some are representatives of input suppliers and they are solely interested in marketing their products to the farmers in the group. On the other hand, successful cattle producers are a generally proud lot who believe that if you are interested in their product or you want to see what they produce you should drive to the farm regardless of the place where you are domiciled!
They generally have very little room for negotiation, be it for alternative ways of viewing the animals or the asking price.
This challenge in so far as getting a decent pool of heifers from which I could easily pick my choice from the comfort of the place of my residence got me convinced that there is a serious digital marketing platform gap.
It is my submission that the livestock industry now needs the help of a livestock marketing portal.
A digital platform on which farmers can either advertise their product or can buy a product which they want. This digital platform can be in the mould of the widely used websites from which the majority of people across the world are buying second-hand vehicles.
Many of us have bought vehicles from Japan but we have never been to Japan. Their websites allow you to view pictures of different models of vehicles that are on offer including full specification of each vehicle. A purchase can be made online and payments done through bank transfers and you only collect your vehicle at your nearest port of entry to your country. Why should I drive to Beitbridge, Mvuma, Mangwe, Somabhula and any other place just to go and view the animals on offer there?
It is costly because firstly the places where the animals are could be several kilometres away, you drive there using scarce and very expensive fuel only to fail to agree on the price or the parcel on sale fails to impress you.
It is my submission therefore that the Agricultural Marketing Authority(AMA) which is a statutory body charged with the role of facilitating and regulating agricultural markets, should develop and host a digital livestock marketing portal with functions like the mentioned Japanese vehicle marketing websites.
A portal on which a farmer who is selling his/her livestock can load pictures of the animals as well as other important specifications like, are they coming from red zone or clean area, age of the animals being sold, weights, breed, the asking price per animal and so on.
Through this platform the seller should be able to invoice including transport, do all the compliance procedures such as clearing the animals and transport the animals to the destination of the buyer.
Of course all costs are met by the buyer and should be part of the invoice.
This way one will be able to sell or buy animals from anywhere and receive them without traversing the whole country physically.
Such a platform can help many of our relatives who are outside the country and are willing to invest in livestock farming but may not have time to be on the ground to do the searching.
We should be constantly thinking as farmers and other service providers as to how we can utilise technology to improve the ease and convenience of doing business in the livestock sector.
While there is nostalgia in doing things the way my forefathers used to do, we should be able to combine this with the improvement and efficiency of technology. I challenge AMA or at least a farmers’ union to take up this suggestion and start to revolutionise livestock marketing in this country and beyond. Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.
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