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From George Maponga in Chiredzi
The government has revived the Cattle Finance Scheme that will see resettled indigenous commercial cattle farmers countrywide receiving 500 hybrid heifers yearly as part of efforts to improve the quality of the beef herd.
The scheme will be run by the Cold Storage Company in partnership with private business.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development (responsible for Cropping) Cde Paddy Zhanda, yesterday said that the government wanted to improve the quality of the local herd to make Zimbabwean beef attractive on the export market.
He said Zimbabwe had over 5.3 million cattle, but the thrust should not be on further improving the numbers , but bettering the genetics of the herd and boosting the calving rate that stood at 48 percent.
Cde Zhanda was speaking during the handover of 100 heifers to indigenous cattle farmers sourced through a commercial joint venture between Lowveld sugar cane producer Tongaat Hulett and CSC.
The heifers were given to beneficiaries of the land reform programme mainly from Mwenezi. Tongaat Hulett will be supplying CSC with hybrid cattle for on-lending to indigenous commercial farmers as part of a drive to improve the quality of Zimbabwean beef.
Cde Zhanda said the government would continue assisting local cattle farmers to improve the quality of their cattle.
“’Our emphasis is really on improving the genetics of our cattle as a way of economically empowering our people and today we’ve given 100 hybrid cattle to farmers mainly in Mwenezi District, but we’re also expanding this programme to cover all parts of the country because we’re not really concerned about the numbers of the cattle that our farmers have, but the quality so that where you need 10 beasts to produce one tonne of beef you can just slaughter one beast,”’ he said.
“We’ve resuscitated the Cattle Finance Scheme to support our resettled farmers and this is the direction that we’re taking to empower our people through improving the genetics of their cattle and the calving rate. We’re targeting to give out at least 500 heifers to our new farmers around the country every year from now on,” he added.
Deputy Minister Zhanda said the government was keen to resuscitate mothballed CSC plants around the country by reviving Zimbabwe’s once vibrant export beef industry.
However, there was need to intensify efforts to improve the quality of the local herd and set up the requisite infrastructure so that Zimbabwean beef meets the expectations of the international market.
Cde Zhanda hailed the joint venture between Tongaat Hulett and CSC saying such partnerships between the government and the private sector should be replicated in other parts of the country and help Zimbabwe achieve its Zim-Asset goals.
Tongaat Hulett managing director Sydney Mtsambiwa, said his company was prepared to continue working with CSC to improve the genetics of the country’s beef herd.
Mtsambiwa said the beef had industry had the potential to earn the country millions of dollars in foreign currency as there were many markets that needed quality beef in the region and beyond.
One of the beneficiaries of the Tongaat Hulett-CSC heifer scheme, Retired Colonel Johannes Masanganise, who is a cattle farmer in Mwenezi, paid tribute to the Lowveld sugar producer for partnering the government in the thrust to improve the quality of the local beef herd.
Rtd Colonel Masanganise decried the appallingly low yield per hectare for most newly resettled cattle farmers in Mwenezi saying the intervention by Tongaat and the government would turnaround the fortunes of many struggling farmers.
Ten A2 cattle farmers from Mwenezi each received 10 heifers under the Tongaat-CSC initiative.
The heifers were being kept at Tongaat’s cattle pens at Triangle estates.
Online Reporter