Vusumuzi Dube
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
THE Beef Enterprise Strengthening and Transformation project (BEST) has vowed to continue the provision of critical beef value-chain services to farmers in a bid to create a robust and reliable competitive beef value chain.
The BEST project is one of the six projects that are supported by the 40 million Euros funding from the European Union (EU) under the Zimbabwe Agricultural Growth Programme (ZAGP). The project is being implemented in five provinces of Zimbabwe: Manicaland, Masvingo, Mashonaland Central, Midlands and Matabeleland North.
According to the latest ZAGP newsletter, the BEST project will continue to provide critical beef value- chain services as it seeks to create a robust, competitive beef value chain that promotes enhanced trade, employment creation, food security and inclusive green economic growth by 2023 and is targeting 25 000 small to medium beef cattle producers.
“The BEST project will continue to provide a number of critical beef value-chain services such as feedlotting, cattle auctions, direct/ walk-in sales, fodder sales, bulling services, farmer training and extension,” read part of the newsletter.
ZAGP said two out of 10 main Cattle Business Centres (CBCs) in Buhera and Chiredzi districts fattened a total 65 cattle for 30 farmers in 2020 and the project is targets 600 cattle (60 per CBC) for 2021 feedlot season.
It said that an additional 115 cattle were fattened on five satellite CBCs in 2020, while BEST project has a target of 750 cattle (15/site) by December 2021.
“Kwekwe, Chiredzi and Mwenezi CBCs have been offering direct walk-in sales since 2020 with an average of 36 cattle sold per month at each site. All the 10 CBCs in the country are now functional and are expected to buy walk-ins with total target of 1,000 cattle by 2021 year-end,” said ZAGP.
It said that a total of 46 cattle were sold by 37 farmers (26 males, 11 females) at the Gokwe CBC as walk-ins in June 2021 while 250 cattle were sold for a total value of US$ 74,250 at Lapache CBC since 2020.
ZAGP said using an average of 36 cattle, the project targets 360 cattle per month to be sold directly to private sector companies running the CBCs.
The BEST project is a consortium partnership of World Vision, Welthungerhilfe (WHH), Sustainable Agriculture Technology (SAT), Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LMAC), Zimbabwe Agriculture Development Trust (ZADT) and Nurture Education Trust. BEST project is closely working with the Ministry of Agriculture Departments and other Government departments such as Youths, Women Affairs and Small to Medium Enterprises.
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