By: Sizakele Nduli
The avian flu outbreak dealt a blow to the poultry industry in 2023, making it impossible for the owner of Lungile Poultry Farm to achieve her target of producing 40,000 eggs a day by 2024. Despite this setback, Lungile Mkhize who set up her business in 2019 with just 500 broilers and 300 layers in her backyard farm in Siyabuswa in Mpumalanga, is steadily moving towards her goal. “Our vision is not to only increase production, but our rural community is at the heart of business. We want to change the employment status of our community by creating employment opportunities and business opportunities such as reselling of eggs by members of community,” Mkhize said.
Mkhize, 31, told Vutivi News that the new chickens at her farm had started laying eggs. After selling 70% of the old chickens and moving the news ones to the production house, the farm is preparing to start a new rearing cycle in August to replace the remaining old stock and increase production to 15,000 eggs daily. The business had also identified a new opportunity in rearing and aims to supply or sell point-of-lay chickens to other farmers.
Reflecting on her days when she was studying agriculture at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Mkhize noted that the in-service training she undertook at a commercial farm after failing a module in her third year, laid the foundation for her business. And her parents also helped by giving her R380,000 from their pension fund to buy equipment when she started the farm. “It was all to meet market demand, sign [a] contract and be legible for funding,” Mkhize explained.
In 2020, the Mpumalanga Youth Development Agency funded Mkhize with R2.5-million, enabling her to increase her production capacity of layer chickens from 2000 to 10,000. She used the money to expand her poultry farm’s capacity to 8000 layers, improve infrastructure, repurpose existing structures for various farm needs, and enhance security and operations. In addition, Mkhize purchased 10,000 chickens and feed worth R1.3-million.
Currently, Mkhize employs 12 people on a permanent basis and they are registered with the Unemployment Insurance Fund. With the growth of her business, she has been able to buy a truck and delivers eggs to Super Spar.
Mkhize has also introduced vegetable tunnel farming to boost her cash flow. This farming method, she said, offered a high fruit yield and allowed for up to six months of continuous harvest. “We are currently growing tomatoes and peppers under the tunnel using the potting soil that we created by mixing pure soil and chicken manure and letting it mould together over six months,” she added.
Mkhize advised aspiring farmers not to expect farming to be like what they saw on social media platforms. “Learn first before you invest in it. It has the ability to leave you broke if you don’t know what you are doing. Every mistake you make has a cost attachment to it in farming. So, learn first, get experience and then try,” Mkhize said.
