Located in Matetiele, Eastern Cape in South Africa, Meat Naturally is a Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) which links South Africa's small-scale farmers and commercial meat buyers, and between NGOs and rural economic development, between economic and ecological enhancement, and between traditional farming methods and new market opportunities. It provides the farming community with the knowledge and tools to break down economic barriers, while motivating them to invest in restoring Africa's rangelands and wetlands.
South Africa contains some of the most biologically rich range lands in the world, and a full 70% of the country can be used for sustainable grazing. South Africa’s rangelands are also home to 76% of the poorest people in the country, many of whom are dependent on livestock-based livelihoods. In fact, 50% of the country’s total livestock are owned by subsistence or emerging (farmers who are starting to sell commercial markets) farmers. Increasingly, these farmers are women who have inherited herds.
SWITCH Africa Green programme through Conservation South Africa has teamed up with the MSME in a project that seeks to address how corporate and government policies can support social equity and environmentally sustainable management of communal rangelands by addressing implementation through landscape demonstrations, sustainability through industry and market engagement, and amplification through informing national policy and programmes. All this is done as part of a single green economic development project.
The project has supported 5 farming groups to formalise their efforts towards conservation and restoration of more than 100,000 hectares of critical communal rangelands through improved livestock management. With secure co-finance from the National Department of Environmental Affairs, the community supported agriculture initiative involved at least 450 male and female participating farmers and, employ at least 150 unemployed but motivated individuals in new roles as environmentally trained livestock managers or “eco-rangers.”
Throughout the project the eco-rangers and local farmers were trained to understand, implement, and verify good grazing practices to provide the traceability that will lead to better business deals.
Meat Naturally provides EcoRanger training for small, rural farmers in Southern Africa. Herders learn techniques for regenerative grazing, cattle management, stock theft patrol, and predator control. Through such intervention, upcoming farmers can provide high quality meats thus enabling them to compete with commercial farmers.
One of the beneficiaries is a farmer cooperative which is minimizing drought impacts and developing their businesses through sustainable practices. Lucas Ubisi is the Chairperson of Utah Cooperative in the Hoedspruit region of Mpumalanga.
“Each and every farmer was doing it alone, that when the drought or winter comes, we find that all over there is no grass," says Ubisi. " We learnt how to make rotational grazing and to prevent overgrazing. We manage to get competition from (the) meat market and back (at) home. So, now all the farmers are engaged in bringing rotational grazing because they see that this is benefitting them."
Through the Meat Naturally Conservation Agreement, the enterprise trains livestock farmers to implement environmentally friendly grazing plans and techniques, assist in erosion control and clearing of invasive plant species, thereby restoring Africa’s rangelands and wetlands. These farmers have become stewards of the continent’s environment, as well as an emerging source of rural economic development in South Africa.
To achieve this, Meat Naturally has created an economic opportunity and a sustainable livelihood for upcoming farmers, linking small-scale independent farmers with commercial buyers of meat products. By organizing and managing both mobile auctions and abattoirs, farmers can sell meat to markets and buyers, formerly inaccessible. Buyers also can have confidence in the meat quality as the enterprise works with farmers to meet production and health standards.
"Through the learning, we understand that everything there is useful, even the inside-digested food, you can use it as manure," Ubisi continues. "As long as we are together, or are fighting together, we can manage to survive and make our business to grow."
