Chronicle Editor
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
CATTLE business centres (CBCs) that were established around the country will continue to transform the livelihoods of small to medium scale cattle farmers, connecting them with markets and providing them access to critical services and resources, an expert has said.
The Beef Enterprise Strengthening and Transformation (BEST) programme under the Zimbabwe Agricultural Growth Programme (ZAGP), established 10 main and 48 satellite CBCs across the country’s rural areas since the project was started in 2019.
With the project having come to an end, BEST project former Livestock Livelihoods Advisor, Mr Gift Chomuzinda said modalities were put in place to ensure the sustainability of the project interventions that include the CBCs are maintained.
“With the support of the BEST project, Zimbabwe’s cattle farmers were realising the potential of their land and livestock and contributing to the country’s economic growth and development. These centres act as hubs for cattle farmers, providing them with access to critical services such as veterinary care, artificial insemination and market information,” he said.
He said the CBCs, irrigated and in-situ pasture models, and related services managed to create multiple strategic economic outputs that have been leveraged by both the farmers and private sector players.
Mr Chomuzinda said the value created through CBCs, and business units is about US$8,5 million with veterinary drugs, stockfeed, cattle marketing, forage seed, loans, hay bales and other related non-cattle outputs such as demo plots, training, bulling and community bulls.
“As evidenced in the mid-term evaluation, as well as the end of project, the market impetus and linkages that have been created between private sector players and small to medium scale cattle farmers are likely to be sustained by the presence of the infrastructure set-up to support these business models. This was confirmed through key informant interviews where private sector players confirmed that the market access created was likely to be sustained. However, the key question might be how the CBCs will continue to be run, repaired and maintained beyond the project lifespan. The drivers for uptake and potential for continuity has been demonstrated by farmer-led own initiative CBCs that have mushroomed in other areas.”
Mr Chomuzinda said in terms of social sustainability that encompasses creation of sustainable employment, leveraging social structures to sustain trajectory, as well as local capacity to support and sustain lessons learnt, a number of strategies were setup.
He said the project supported the strengthening of the lead farmers for on-ward capacity development of the small to medium farmers, while the evaluation results indicate that the lead farmers have managed to go on and train other farmers both within the project and outside.
Mr Chomuzinda said: “The intervention capacitated the local extension officers with knowledge and mobility (motor bikes) to reach out to the farmers as well as provided them with fuels and sustenance funds.”
He said they also enabled the farmers to gain income from livestock, which has positive impacts on household food security, livelihoods and resilience.
Mr Chomuzinda said the estimated formal employment increased fractionally, while clearly structured exit strategies were setup at district level which outlined some key strategies to carry forward activities post-project.
The project was rolled out in districts such as Buhera, Chiredzi, Gokwe South, Kwekwe, Lupane, Makoni, Mt Darwin, Mwenezi, Shurugwi and Umguza.
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