Chronicle Editor
THIS past week the President declared the El Nino-induced drought a state of disaster indicating a call to action in the country’s disaster preparedness. The drought is not only experienced in Zimbabwe but in most of Southern Africa.
The declaration is an important action because it is a call for action and an activation of the civil protection arm of the State, putting drought at the centre of their daily agenda.
It is an invitation for philanthropists and funding agencies to come on board and lend a hand to save a potentially disastrous situation in the country with regards to food security.
The declaration is an official pronouncement by the highest office that we are facing a food security challenge due to the drought and those willing and able to help can come in and provide whatever assistance in the food security arena.
My submission is, however, not going to unpack what the declaration means but to shine a light on the livestock aspect of the disaster.
The declaration states that about 2,7 million people are food-insecure due to the El Nino-induced drought.
Let it not escape the minds of those who will use the declaration for resource mobilisation that the 2,7 million people are not only food insecure, but they are also at risk of losing their productive assets such as livestock due to the effects of the same drought.
It is therefore, important to mobilise resources for saving livestock as well so that we do not just manage to keep people alive but regress into abject poverty due to the drought.
Let this be a call to save the farmer’s assets and investments as much as saving him.
We appeal to the funding agencies especially those with an inclination towards livestock production to use the declaration to mobilise their resources while there is still time and intervene timeously. I have protested before on this platform and I caution against slow responses to such clear emergencies.
It is always sad to see a product that could have saved thousands of animals being delivered late when farmers have already lost huge numbers of animals.
I remember one year when subsidised stock feed meant to save animals supported by one funding institution came as late as the onset of the rains and naturally the uptake was poor for two major reasons.
The farmers had already lost their animals to the drought and secondly, the rainy season had started. The stock feed was bought by big farmers now preparing for the next season, not by the initially intended target.
What I detest most is the reports that will follow explaining the poor uptake of the support product be it stockfeed or whatever.
The programme officers will go to town on how the community was not responsive and how they shunned the product even if it was meant to save their animals. The community is then painted as irrational and poorly discerning and nothing is said about the poor timing of the product due to the red tape processes of the implementing organisation!
We have about two months before the effect of drought starts hitting hard on livestock farmers, let’s use the two months to do what we have to do so that whatever support we seek as funding institutions and implementing partners can be provided when it is still useful. Anything that comes after August I suspect that it will be very late.
I hope that this timely declaration of the state of disaster caused by the El Nino-induced drought, will stimulate the provision of help, a livestock farmer so desperately needs.
I am not looking forward to writing in this space and quoting millions of animals lost to this year’s drought. Let us all do what we can to help the Government help the farmers. Uyabonga umntaka MaKhumalo.
Mhlupheki Dube is a livestock specialist and farmer. He writes in his own capacity. Feedback [email protected] cell 0772851275
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