N.Z. farmer wanted for African farm

Press, 20 December 1978, Page 25

N.Z. farmer wanted for African farm

NZPA Washington A Washington-based service group, International Voluntary Services (1.V.5.), is looking for a New Zealand couple to manage a sheep ranch. But it is not a run-of-the-mill sheep ranch. It is at Kapoeta in the hot, dry, southern extremity of the Sudan, close to the Kenyan border and 200 miles from civilisation.

The road to Kapoeta is a dirt trail that becomes almost impassable in the wet season.

Kapoeta itself has 5000 inhabitants but only seven shops selling a few basic necessities. The surrounding country is peopled by 30,000 primitive tribesmen whose livelihood is based almost entirely on pastoral production of sheep. According to an I.V.S. press release the “Taposa” live in mud-walled, grass-

roofed huts in thorn* fenced compounds, existing on a diet of a milk-blood-urine mix and a little dura in season. The land has a high production potential but vast areas are overgrazed and neglected. The Taposa’s sheep are thin and scraggy, the result of ticks, worms, and other diseases, and have a high mortality rate. The 1.V.5., at the request of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation and Sundanese agricutural authorities, is now run* ning a sheep ranch at Kapoeta.

The aim of the project is to test the feasibility of sheep ranching and to demonstrate better pasture and flock management techniques to the Toposa.

A New Zealander, Mr Alan Kerse, aged 32, start-

ed the ranch 18 months ago after a stint with V.S.I. in Yemen. But Mr Kerse’s assign- i ment is almost finished | and I.V.S. is looking for I replacements. “If you don’t mind the cultural isolation, the sheep ranch manager position is an exciting and challenging one,” said an I.V.S. otticial. He notes that the post would suit a married couple. I.V.S. says that Mr Kerse has done a great job in his 18 months tour. The ranch, which covers 4500 acres, now supports 2000 fat-tailed sheep. The animals are healthy and fat because of dipping, drenching, and controlled grazing introduced by Mr Kerse and his 70 Sudanese ranch hands. Lamb deaths have fallen from 60 per cent to 7 per cent. 1.V.5., founded in 1953, is similar in many respects to New Zealand’s Volunteer Service Abroad group. But it recruits workers in agriculture, engineering, public health, and co-operative development projets internationally. At present more than half its 70 volunteers are non-American. Mr Kerse was recruited by I.V.S. to work in the Yemen in 1976 through a New Zealand friend who had worked for the American organisation in Bangladesh. Both men had earlier served with V.S.A. in Thailand.