Poultry farmer draws ordinary people to benefit from the sector as group

According to statistics released by the SA Poultry Association in 2018, Mzansi’s poultry industry was ranked the largest segment of the agricultural sector, contributing more than 43% of animal product GDP.

In 2020, it was reported that over 3 million chickens are slaughtered throughout the country per day.

Whether it’s a portion of sticky hot wings, a warm bowl of chicken stew or some good old spicy "chicken dust", South Africans undoubtedly love their chicken.

This renders the poultry industry alive with possibilities for growth and innovation.

In an attempt to explore some of these possibilities, Ellen Mokau decided to start the Isondo Farmers Stokvel in July 2020.

As a small-scale chicken farmer, Mokau had started off by raising only 200 chickens and was in search of growth.

“My dad raised chickens when I was growing up so it’s a business I grew up seeing. I started out as a backyard farmer and I figured the space that I was using was very small. I could not really grow and the main point was to go commercial instead of just staying small,” she said.

“So I went about and advertised on Twitter to say I need investors or people who want to start chicken farming with me.”

As Mokau was already vocal and active on social media, people knew about her journey in farming, so it was not long before she had people who were willing to join in on her idea. And so Isondo Farmers was born.

“We registered the stokvel as a co-operative and this is because we wanted to be able to apply for funding from the department of agriculture or a similar body in the near future because we may not always be able to manage everything on our own,” elaborated Mokau.

Almost two years later, the stokvel has enabled ordinary young people, some with no prior experience of poultry farming, to be successful farmers.

Isondo Farmers has also provided training to other groups who desired to implement a similar model.

We would actually need somebody who is passionate about farming and passionate about creating employment. You can bring admin skills, financial skills, sales or marketing skills to the table because we require those too.

“How it works is that members initially invest an amount of R4,500 and once the chickens are successfully raised and sold, members re-invest the sales into the stokvel. After five cycles, members also get dividends. A cycle is six weeks,” explained Mokau.  

Emphasising that one does not need to be an already established chicken farmer in order to join, the stokvel’s founder said passion, the will to learn as well as the possession of other useful skills are really all it takes.

“We would actually need somebody who is passionate about farming and passionate about creating employment. You can bring admin skills, financial skills, sales or marketing skills to the table because we require those too,” she said.

Although initially founded on 30 members, the stokvel currently consists of 25 members as some left and one unfortunately passed on.

Rola Rapelego, who joined the stokvel in 2020, said being a part of Isondo Farmers was a no-brainer for him as he was already a part-time chicken farmer who wanted to explore growth opportunities.

After doing his research and gaining a thorough understanding of the stokvel, he was fully in.

“I am a poultry farmer and I follow a lot of poultry farmers. I happened to follow Ellen and I saw a tweet where she invited other poultry farmers or investors to invest into the stokvel. And that’s how I joined,” he said.

“At that time, I was also a full-time employee in the mining industry. I saw an opportunity that should anything happen in the mining industry due to Covid, I might still be able to get some form of money from the stokvel.”

Rapelego is now a full-time poultry farmer.

Outside of being part of Isondo Farmers, he also grows between 1,000 to 2,000 chickens per cycle on his own.

“I had to resign because the stokvel actually showed more opportunities on how you can really make it in the poultry sector,” he said.

While Isondo Farmers is currently facing a few challenges, the passionate group of emerging poultry farmers aims to grow even further, both in number and expertise.

They also hope to explore other avenues within farming and to cement themselves in the commercial market.

Taking Stok! – Isondo Farmers Stokvel

• Established: July 2020
• Members: 25
• Current worth: R80,000
• Successes: As a result of the stokvel, people who didn’t know anything about poultry farming were able to enter the industry and establish themselves as poultry farmers; and
• The stokvel has been able to train other groups who had the desire to start their own stokvels using a similar model.
• Challenges: Commitment was quite a challenge (especially in the beginning stages) because the stokvel consists of people from different provinces. Some members were not always available to participate in making the stokvel a success;
• Due to distance, members are not always physically available, so there is a risk of having passive investors instead of active members;
• and Funding has also proven to be an issue that affects various other factors within the farming process. For example, the chickens which the stokvel is able to get are second grade and take longer to grow.
• The pricing of good-quality feed is also quite expensive. These all delay the return on investment.

Red Flags (advice from Isondo Farmers on what to look out for when joining any stokvel):

• Do your research: Find out if the stokvel is legitimate or not. Ensure you have an understanding of their vision, mission and history before joining;
• If it doesn’t speak to you, rather stay away: It is always better when a stokvel speaks to your heart and passion. This will enable you to have the willpower to participate and add value to the stokvel;
• and Beware of scammers: If it seems unrealistic or too good to be true, it most likely is and you are better off keeping your money to yourself.