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Her quest for the root of farmers’ poverty

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On a mission: Nomusa Jaca. Picture: Facebook
On a mission: Nomusa Jaca. Picture: Facebook

@SthembileCel

It’s 3am on a Sunday when Nomusa Jaca gets a frantic phone call from a farmer in a village in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga. His calf has gone missing. Can she help him find it?

There probably isn’t much she can do, she thinks. Animal theft is common practice in these parts and the calf has probably been stolen. Still, as soon as the sun comes up, she gets in her car, tries to make sense of the directions given to her by the panicked farmer and makes her way to his small property. It is the bond they now have.

At a time when ambitious young professionals like her want the corner office, a sleek German car and stable Wi-Fi, this young black woman is looking to change the game for subsistence farmers.

The 25-year-old Jaca is completing her master’s in animal production management sciences at the University of Pretoria.

For the past two years, she has lived and worked among the subsistence farmers of Bushbuckridge. With more practical experience, she hopes to use her knowledge to teach people how to put food on their tables and, ultimately, “make money from animals”.

Jaca knows the answers she seeks may be a way off, but she’s nailed down one important question.

“I’m grappling with why agricultural communities are impoverished, because it doesn’t make sense to me. People have been farming for generations, yet they live in poverty. Commercial farmers are doing so well.

“White farmers are making it; black farmers are struggling. I think once I understand why, I can play my part in trying to change it.”

Jaca’s research involves looking at ways to manipulate the biology of domesticated animals and livestock to figure out how to reach their full production potential. She is passionate about food security but refuses to judge stock thieves.

“People are really hungry and it shouldn’t be that way because Africa has so much agricultural potential. I want to be one of those people who contributes to combating hunger and malnutrition through agriculture.”

But going into villages as a young black woman trying to teach predominantly elderly black men how to change their lifelong methods of farming has not been easy.

Jaca might have science on her side, but the arrival of this township girl from Soshanguve, near Pretoria, is a culture shock.

“There is still this belief – especially with older black men – that your superior has to be a white man or, at the very least, a white woman.”

Jaca remembers how she made one farmer “furious”.

“We had been tagging the animals to identify what belonged to whom. This farmer’s calf had been tagged and it died shortly after that. I tried to explain that it couldn’t die from being tagged and there must have been something else wrong with it – but he was hearing none of it.”

During the past few years, she has discovered many things in her quest to solve the puzzle of rural poverty.

“The farm families usually own cattle, goats, pigs and chickens. Most of them don’t own their land, so the animals are let loose to graze wherever there is open land.

“There is usually one herdsman who looks after the herds of four of five people, who may live in the city or work on the mines. There is no control over disease transmission. It takes one sick animal to decimate an entire herd overnight – and then it is all over.”

Jaca had never even been on a farm until her studies took her to one. But she always knew she wanted to work with animals.

The death of her pet dog Kubi when she was 14 still makes her sad. “I didn’t go to school for three days. I was inconsolable.”

Jaca can’t really explain why she has always been so enchanted by animals, but she describes what she does now as her calling. It doesn’t bother her that many of her peers consider a career in agriculture unglamorous and poorly paid. “It’s not a very fancy career and it’s hard labour 24/7 – you don’t get holidays.”

But Jaca can’t imagine herself in any other setting. “I don’t want to be stuck in an office with paperwork and stuffy outfits.”

Currently back home in Pretoria writing her thesis, Jaca confesses she is happy to be reunited with her TV and internet – but she still can’t wait to get back out in the field.

“When I’m in the city, I really miss being in my overalls and gumboots with the animals and farmers.”

And her relationship with those farmers she once infuriated has come a long way.

“I often get called to share some milk and meat or other traditional delicacies. They call on me at all hours for advice on their animals. I feel like I belong now.”

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