MEET MR BOKANG MOLELLE

• By Admin
• 15th February, 2021

Mr Molelle is an Accountant by profession, a Farmer by occupation.

He is one of the fans and activists of the United nations agenda 2030 for sustainable development. His favourite SDGs are SDG 1, 2, 3, 8, 12.

He is also very much aware of the national strategic development 2 , that there should be private-sector led jobs creation and economic development.

He is implementing the NSDP 2 key priority sector : AGRICULTURE and he calls on all youth and other members of the community to have a role to play in agriculture and food security, thereby creating jobs for themselves in the process.

Mr Bokang Molelle, is into a piggery project at PBL Farms in Leribe district, about 140km north of Maseru.
PBL Farms is a collection of 10 pigsties that are built on the outskirts of Kolonyama Ha Molelle. The sheds are built away from the rest of the community so as to protect the environment.

PBL Farms breeds Crowborough types of pigs that are very popular in the market. At full capacity the farm would normally have 100 pigs that are in various stages of breeding and maturity.

The farm has three types of pigs that are sold to the market and these are the mature animals for meat (pork), piglets and boars for breeding. In terms of pork supply, the enterprise slaughters five pigs per month that they deliver to local butcheries, shops and individual customers. However, Mr Molelle said the current capacity is low as the demand of pork is high and the cost of operations are also high making it difficult for new entrants.In mitigation of high demand, PBL sources pork from other individual farmers, particularly those who bought piglets from PBL.

&002;The animal pens are constructed as either open or closed sheds, depending on their usage. We have got 10 farrowing pens and 7 breeding/mating pens.For breeding purposes, the boars and their piglets are reared in a closed space. This is to allow them to reach maturity in a controlled environment that is not prone to diseases&002;He said

Mr Molelle outlined that the enclosed sheds require close monitoring as the pigs often need constant feeding and water. The abundant water supply is always necessary to clean the massive amount of waste that the animals produce. Good ventilation and heating may also be necessary as Lesotho’s climate is generally cold especially in the long winter months.

For breeding purposes, the pigs are kept in the enclosed sheds for a period of six to seven months before they are sold and for meat purposes the pigs take between seven and eight months before they are sent to the abattoir in Maseru for slaughter.

One of the most interesting aspect of the farm is a biodigester unit that is connected to the various sheds through water troughs. The animal waste and used water are stored in the biodigester to produce biogas that is also used for heating purposes at the farm. During summer, the sheds are opened to allow more ventilation.

Mr Molelle said the abattoir follows strict hygienic protocols before the meat is cut and delivered to various outlets such as shops and butcheries in Leribe district as well as in Maseru.Further more, he said the farm can also deliver the meat to individuals upon order. In terms of marketing he uses mobile phone to connect to his customers through Facebook and WhatsApp.

&002;For growth and expansion strategy, we need to source additional investment to develop infrastructure and to stabilize the business processes&002; He said

He further mentioned that the farm’s future prospect is to increase its capacity in order to supply pork meat to large chain stores such as Pick ‘n’ Pay and Shoprite that have branches throughout the country.
“However, in order to do this, one must meet their quality standards as well as the quantities required. In our current state at PBL Farms this is not possible but once we get investment and government backing, we might be in a position to operate competitively using the best agroecological practices to rear our pigs for the market,” he concluded.

Article by : Agribusiness Network News
Email:magazine@agribusinessnetwork.co.ls