A small gesture of assistance from the Department of Agriculture, Environmental Affairs, Land Reform and Rural Development is yielding positive results for a Subsistence farmer, Mr. Ian Titus in the Victoria West - the Pixley ka Seme District Municipality. The Department has assisted Mr. Titus with wool pressor machine, wool weighing machine, fencing material for his livestock and six rams. 

An elated Mr. Titus started farming in 2003 in Carnarvon and in 2006 relocated to Victoria West. This was the best decision he had made, as fate would have it, he luckily met with the department's officials. This encounter resulted with the above mentioned donation. Since then, he has not looked back but concentrated on maximizing his newly acquired implements and animals to the best of his abilities.

The assistance from the Department does not only assist him because he employs 12 employees, although most of them are seasonal workers, especially during the shearing season. This greatly assists in extricating themselves from the pangs of hunger. Unfortunately, he is not spared from the social and natural ills, that is, stock theft and drought. These have a devastating effect on his farming progression. Like all emerging farmers in the Province, he also bemoaned about the lack of arable land. He decried that, if subsistence farmers are not provided with more land, then they will never graduate to become commercial farmers. Despite all these challenges, Oom Jan, as he is affectionately called, he quite contended with the assistance from the department. He could not stop from heaping praising on the department for reigniting his passion for farming. During our visit, he showed us the feeding kraal where he is preparing his rams for mating season. He proudly showed us the rams from the Department and one could easily see the elation in his face. 

We were also showed how the the pressor and the weight machine operated. He is very exited about the quality of the wool that he is yielding, he attributes this to the department's rams.  After packing of the wool into bulk stacks, they are than sold for processing to Port Elizabeth. Finally, we were elucidated about the fluctuating prices of the wool market.