When it comes to game farming, hunting and breeding yield the highest production output and highest capital layout, but also generate the most profit. This was the findings of a ground-breaking study that the North-West University’s (NWU) Tourism Research in Economics, Environs and Society (TREES) recently conducted on game farming.
This research is not only a first of its kind, but will also help entrepreneurs who want to venture into this sector make more informed choices.
This is what game farmers use their land for
Under the supervision of Prof Peet van der Merwe from the School of Tourism, PhD student Woudi von Solms recently completed a study on what farm owners use their land for. The five land use forms for game farmers are hunting, breeding, game products, ecotourism and mixed farming.
Her research looked at the five land use forms and which combination farmers use. It also tested which of these land uses have the largest production output, highest capital layout, and which generates the highest income.
Prof Van der Merwe says they found that hunting and breeding are the two forms that have the highest production output, highest capital layout, but also generate the most profit.
They found that ecotourism is more popular in KwaZulu-Natal, while farm owners in Limpopo, the North West and Northern Cape provinces focused mainly on hunting and breeding. The research revealed that smaller farms tend to focus on breeding while larger farms focused on hunting and ecotourism.
Prof Van der Merwe states that entrepreneurs who want to get into game farming now have concrete research that will give them insight into what each land use form will cost and what potential profit could be made.
This study was funded by the National Research Foundation and Wildlife Ranching South Africa.
The influence of internal and external inputs
Location, carrying capacity of a farm, the size of the land, different wildlife in various parts of the country, and legislation are some of the internal and external factors that have the potential to affect the five land use forms.
According to Prof Van der Merwe, each province has its own wildlife legislation; therefore before an entrepreneur venture into game farming, they need to ensure that they are informed about the legislation.
“Future prediction is that more game farm owners will shift towards producing game products (such as meat) and eco-tourism, as there is currently a lot of pressure on the hunting industry,” concludes Prof Van der Merwe.
Prof Peet van der Merwe
Woudi von Solms
