Judith Phiri, [email protected]
LIVESTOCK farmers have been called on to disregard middlemen and explore direct marketing channels set up by the Government such as ward drought mitigation centres to secure better returns from their animals and maximise profits from livestock production.
This call comes as farmers are being encouraged to adopt proactive livestock management strategies, including reducing unproductive cattle before pasture and water shortages worsen.
In the past during drought seasons, farmers have been forced to sell livestock for a song to middlemen at very low prices to avoid losing animals to starvation due to shortage of grazing.
In an interview on the sidelines of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development national clean-up campaign at the Matabeleland North Provincial Veterinary Office head-quartered in Bulawayo on Friday, Permanent Secretary Professor Obert Jiri encouraged farmers to avoid middlemen.
“We have talked about these middlemen and people who fleece livestock and crop farmers and some of them even supply fake seeds and we generally call such acts agro-terrorism. This happens a lot because these middlemen take advantage of the vulnerability of our farmers.
“We know that as we go towards the end of the lean season, our livestock condition deteriorates and the middlemen take advantage of this to offer very little money to our farmers who are told they risk losing their livestock to El Niño-induced drought,” he said.
Prof Jiri said Government established ward drought mitigation centres where farmers are provided with livestock feed and water.
He said the centres also have livestock handling and selling facilities so there is no need for middlemen.
Prof Jiri said it was at these centres where livestock farmers in a ward should meet and engage the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) regarding dates when they could sell their cattle.
“This is where AMA, the rural district council officials, the veterinary officers, livestock farmers and auctioneers must meet to ensure farmers get fair prices for their cattle and avoid the middlemen,” he said.
Prof Jiri said the revived Cold Storage Company was providing a very big market for cattle and will take advantage of ward drought mitigation centres to meet farmers.
He said 751 ward drought mitigation centres had been established out of the 1 527 rural wards and work to establish more centres was underway.
