In 2016, Pollen Mokgope’s journey started as a mere hobby, but by 2019, it had transformed into a significant enterprise when he discovered a vast market need. He now trains aspiring farmers and those who have already ventured into farming but are facing challenges, equipping them with the knowledge to enhance their practices and boost their profitability.

By Jabu Kumalo

Don’t just be a farmer; be a visionary architect of wealth and abundance! Imagine transforming your agricultural endeavours into a thriving enterprise that benefits you and your loyal clientele.

This is the revolutionary mindset championed by Pollen Mokgope, an esteemed trainer, mentor, and consultant in poultry and livestock production. His project, aptly named First Dynast, or Dynast Agricultural Advisory Services, embodies this powerful philosophy.

He described a dynast as a person belonging to a dynasty, a family that has been in power for generations. His original idea was to create something that would be viewed as the top tier in the farming world.

“And rulers are wealthy. So, we help farmers to accumulate wealth through farming. So, when I started the services, I thought it was the first of its kind. One thing about rulers is that they are wealthy and love wealth. So, I wanted to be the first to help farmers create wealth,” explained Pollen.

What started as a hobby around 2016, blossomed into a formal, huge project in 2019 when he realised there was a huge gap in this market. Pollen said they train farmers who want to start farming or who have started but doing things incorrectly and not seeing profits in their farming operations. They also sell veterinary products (animal health products).

The Dynast also specialises in training and consultations on poultry (layers and broilers) production and livestock farming. They conduct assessments and recommendations on farms as well. Other services that they offer include detecting causes if there is poor production.

He said he gets his clients by, among other methods, doing educational videos that he posts on social media, and attending farmers’ day functions where he shares with them about his services. Sometimes he goes directly to farmers to market himself.

Pollen explained how they approach their duties: “We cover both layers and broilers, cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. But our main focus is on broiler and layer production, then followed by animal health. We work from any level of farming. If you want to start, we help with guiding on how the infrastructure should be so that it can make production easy. ”

They also assist with structure design, precision farming, disease identification, control and management, record keeping, and marketing strategies as well as help with access to markets.

He currently holds a BSc in Agriculture in animal production and is looking forward to doing a Masters’ Degree next year. He said he has many clients across the country, particularly in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and North West.

He prides himself in that they have rectified many a farmer’s mistakes that have gone wrong, even in instances where they had already built permanent structures which were not suitable for farming needs. Pollen also remarked that they have revived several projects and have saved several that were at the brink of collapse.  

Looking back at his life, he said he had no regrets about choosing this career.

Pollen said: “As a kid, I wanted to be a farmer because I grew up herding goats at home and I took an interest in animals. Now my dream is closely related to what I am doing. I am a professional farmer. The only regret I have is that I didn’t start earlier and was not confident enough at the beginning. But yes, this is the best decision I took as I learn every day and get to network with other people in the industry. That further opens doors for me as a person and the consultancy. I find pleasure in solving problems and I am proud to say that I get fulfilled when my clients see improvement in their farming operations.”

He encourages youngsters to venture into this field. He said, “Farming is good for young people because the actual good money comes in the long run.”

“Farming is a science and in recent years literacy in youngsters has increased. I would encourage them to read more about farming effectively and efficiently. They would reap more rewards at the end of the day.”

Pollen said some of the major problems they are faced with are diseases, especially those that affect farmers so badly that they have to shut their operations. This, he said, also leads to an increase in time and space in visits from one farm to another. The other big challenge is the “forever increasing price of animal feed and poor road infrastructure in rural areas.

“I plan to see the consultancy getting more clients, having more deals with veterinary product manufacturers, and animal feed manufacturers and having a bigger shop that will sell agricultural products. The ultimate goal is to improve farming, especially in rural areas so that they can farm scientifically. It would require a lot of stakeholders to help me get to my ultimate goal. I’m not yet there, but I will try by all means to make sure we send reliable information to farmers.”

He said what is unique about them and makes them different is that they are “allergic to failure.”

“We strive for customer satisfaction all the time. We measure our success by how successful our clients are. We are patient with our clients. My advanced communication skills and the pleasure of speaking nine out of the official languages and some dialects fluently is a plus for me,” he said with pride in his voice.

He said currently, unfortunately, there was a slight drop in clients and requests for their service since the avian flu affected many farmers. There was also a huge shortage of layer farms after the flu, he mentioned, and their services have been required less.

He also stated there was an increase in inputs on broiler production that pushed other small-scale farmers out and affected the need for their services.