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Flora Fadzai Sibanda
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AFTER working in the United Kingdom for more than 20 years as a mental health nurse, Mrs Sifiso Agbetorwoka decided to return home to venture into commercial goat farming, a business which she started using her retirement package.

She started with only nine goats in 2019 and today the herd has grown to 400. Mrs Agbetorwoka operates her thriving business at her Farm in Fort Rixon in Insiza District, Matabeleland South province.

For Mrs Agbetorwoka, the transition from being a nurse to a goat breeder was smooth given the experience she acquired over the years as a nurse.

“One might wonder how I managed to switch with ease from nursing to goat farming. Well, goats to me are like patients in a hospital and they need to be treated with the greatest care and some form of patience,” she said.

Mrs Agbetorwoka said when she decided to retire from nursing in 2011, she consulted a few people on how she could invest her retirement package and they offered sound advice.

“I then bought Bulembe Farm and ventured into poultry farming,” she said.

She said she bought 10 000 birds but the project was a disaster as she only realised US$54 at the end of six weeks.

“The project was a complete disaster and I told myself that I would not continue with poultry farming because of the losses I incurred. I then set up an irrigation farming project focusing on horticulture,” said Mrs Agbetorwoka.

She said after a few years, she felt horticulture farming was not enough.

“When I was exploring other business avenues, I stumbled upon a video on YouTube where a Ugandan businessman was giving advice on goat farming and how successful it was. I felt challenged and decided to give it a try,” said Mrs Agbetorwoka.

She said she started doing her own research on goat breeding and engaging farmers who were already into goat breeding.

“In January 2019, I bought nine goats as an experiment and it proved to be worth the sweat, and over the years the goats have been multiplying and today I am talking of 400 goats,” said Mrs Agbetorwoka.

She said goat farmers should pay particular attention to feeding.

“Nutrition affects fertility and weaning percentage and the sooner the kids are weaned, the better for the farmers,” said Mrs Agbetorwoka.

She said first-time mothers are kept in a separate camp where they are monitored to ensure the mothers and kids remain in good condition.

Mrs Agbetorwoka said goats require a lot of care.

“Just like a patient in a hospital, goats should be kept in a clean environment because goat hooves can easily rot if kept in dirty and unhealthy places. Before touching a kid, you need to first wash your hands, and just like in a hospital if a goat falls sick, it has to be quarantined and examined in a separate place,” she said.

Mrs Agbetorwoka is cross-breeding the Matabele breed with the Boer breed and she said her target is  to have a minimum of 1 000 goats by the end of next year.

“A goat breeder’s worst nightmare is getting a low-quality breed and that happens if goats from the same lineage mate and the doe gets pregnant,” she said.

Mrs Abetorwoka said as part of her social responsibility, she lends her male goats to the local community.

She said she also occasionally conducts boot camps to educate farmers on goat breeding.

“Breeding goats the proper way is critical and that is why I sometimes host boot camps for two weeks to share knowledge with local farmers. Recently we lost over 50 kids at the farm because of failure to detect a disease.”

Mrs Agbetorwoka said she also keeps 100 cattle and hope to increase the herd to at least 1 000.–@flora_sibanda