Amalima Programme fails to yield desired results

Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Farming Reporter
FARMERS in the Matabeleland region who artificially inseminated their cows under the United States Agency for International Development (Usaid)’s Amalima Programme, are demanding reimbursement alleging that the technology failed to yield the desired results after only a few animals calved.

Farmers who spoke to Sunday Business on condition of anonymity are claiming that the service provider’s ineptness led to the appalling low calving rates.

They said over 400 cows that were inseminated in March last year only about 30 of them got pregnant.

“The programme was a disaster with over 420 cows inseminated only less than 30 animals managed to calf. This initiative was meant or looked as if it was brought to help farmers but that wasn’t the case as farmers were ripped off of their hard earned cash and their time wasted as they lost a chance to get at least a calf from their bulls. As farmers we are of the view that we should be compensated,” said one of the farmers.

Department of Livestock Production and Development Matabeleland South provincial livestock specialist Mrs Simangaliphi Ngwabi said there was a need to carry out an extensive survey to ascertain the number of farmers whose animals failed to respond to the programme.

“Of course we received concerns about the AI which was carried out under that (Amalima) programme but I can’t comment much about it because the best thing will be to carry out a survey of all those farmers whose animals underwent AI and then we can safely conclude what exactly transpired,” Mrs Ngwabi.

Farmers said they bought the semen for the project from Progene Seeds, a breeding company which was working with Amalima.

A senior director at Progene Seeds Mr Andrew Henderson said the problem cannot be blamed on his organistaion only but other factors.

“Artificial Insemination is not an exact science as there are many factors that affect the rate of conception of the cows. In general, with cattle in good condition the conception rates vary from 50-65 percent or higher in exceptional conditions,” he said.

Mr Henderson said when cattle are in poor general condition at AI or suffer hard environmental conditions such as poor grazing or drought, conception rates will be affected and can drop dramatically.

“The AI has no control over this. This was seen as the case in the southern areas of the country this last year. Cattle should be in a rising plane of nutrition to conceive and if nutrition levels are limiting, conception rates are likely to be poor.”

Amalima’s chief party Mr David Brigham said his organisation was not directly involved the Artificial Insemination process but in training farmers.

“Amalima staff, in collaboration with the Department of Livestock Production and Development, Department of Veterinary Services, Agritex and local paravets, facilitated the trainings and discussed the benefits and risks of AI, the process, timing and post-pregnancy diagnosis with farmers,” he said.

He said the trainings linked interested farmers to Progene to access the artificial insemination technology at a fee of $30 per cow.

The fee went towards purchasing the heat inducing hormone, semen, stock feed (where needed) and paying for the technicians’ services.

“Farmers who participated in the programme paid charged fees directly to the service provider. Amalima’s role in the process was a facilitator-to educate farmers on AI and arrange with a provider to ensure that services were available locally should farmers chose to participate. Farmer participation was voluntary, and all financial transactions were directly between farmers and the service provider. Famers were also free to select the breeds used for the AI,” said Mr Brigham.

He said Amalima was in the process of conducting an assessment to determine the successes, constraints and lessons learnt after the initial phase.

Amalima facilitated the programme in three districts in Matabeleland namely Gwanda, Mangwe and Tsholotsho as a way of addressing low bulling ratio, low calving rates and in-breeding, which have been identified as major constraints that hinder smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe from improving livestock production.

Amalima deputy chief of party, Professor Ntombizakhe Mpofu Mlilo said the service provider was due to carry out the second phase of the AI programme but adverse lack of sufficient pastures has had a negative impact to the cattle’s condition.

“Truly speaking it won’t be good to do a second insemination because the season is not yet good. The alternative is to give the animals supplementary feed which is rather expensive for the farmers as they have to channel the little money they have towards buying food,” she said.

Meanwhile, Amalima is strategically scaling up its activities to respond to the ongoing drought and poor agricultural season.

In November last year, Amalima introduced a protective ration of sorghum, lentils and vegetable oil to be distributed during the lean season up until March this year.

The protective ration is given to households with pregnant mothers and children under the age of two in an effort to prevent chronic malnutrition, which continues to be hindered by increased food insecurity and ration sharing.

The basket includes 10 kilogrammes of sorghum, 3,3 kg of lentils and 0,918 kg of vegetable oil per household per month.

Amalima is also using Cash for Assets (CFA) work as a strategy to get vital cash in the hands of households in Gwanda, Tsholotsho, Bulilima and Mangwe districts.

The programme pays beneficiaries a daily wage for labour, while contributing to community Disaster Risk Reduction and livelihoods opportunities by using that labour to produce shared community assets.