Online Reporter
Edgar Vhera-Specialist Writer – Agribusiness
STAKEHOLDERS in the livestock industry have called on Government to institute new agricultural policies compelling farmers to commit between 10 and 20 percent of their arable land to pasture and fodder production.
The call comes amid rising stock feed costs and increased livestock deaths during dry spells, with stakeholders warning that current production levels cannot sustain national herd growth targets.
Zimbabwean smallholder farmers depend on rangeland for food, livelihood and eco-services yet these grazing areas are suffering from the tragedy of the commons.
Tragedy of the commons is an economic/environmental perception where beneficiaries who have access to a shared resource (like grazing area) act in their own short-term self-interest and end up overexploiting, degrading or exhausting that resource, ultimately hurting the whole community.
Marondera University of Agricultural Science and Technology senior lecturer and farmer, Dr Godfrey Manyawu raised the issue at the recent Zimbabwe Agricultural Society (ZAS) livestock conference in Harare.
The conference ran under the theme: “Building Resilient Livestock Systems towards a US$15, 8 billion Agriculture Economy by 2030: Addressing the Production and Marketing Challenges.”
Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030 target is to transition 1, 8 million households from subsistence to commercial farming. Owning livestock helps farmers to diversify risk, increase assets/capital and improve resilience to calamities.
Climate change is affecting availability of livestock feed resources during the wet and dry seasons, thereby threatening the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.
“Farmers ought to complement natural veld with planted pastures to mitigate shortage of feed and forage in both wet and dry seasons.
“Very little land (if any) is devoted to planted pastures/fodders – we call upon Government to regularise the setting aside of at least 10 to 20 percent of the total arable land at each farm in communal areas or irrigation schemes for pasture and fodder production (depending on agro-ecological region),” he said.
Dr Manyawu said the policy should ensure all private sector and non-government organisations promoted adoption or scaling of climate-smart forage varieties that are registered/approved by Government.
The policy should support or ensure rationalisation of fodder seed prices, improved forage seed breeding and reclassification of farmer open pollinated variety (OPV) seed into grain thereby further reducing costs of home mixing.
“Let’s not treat fodder as just another commodity, it’s a value chain.
“Production of hay or silage, feeders, drinkers, feed mixers using cheap material, feed and seed as well as fattening of livestock for sale are among businesses along the fodder value chain that can be explored,” he added.
Dr Manyawu said silage making was a profitable venture for arid areas and called on farmers to plant pasture/fodder to use in own-feed formulations and cut cost of production and boost incomes rather than rely on natural veld, an communal resource.
Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LMAC) executive administrator, Dr Reneth Mano concurred saying ruminant productivity could be improved through animal disease control and rangeland management.
“If the rangeland is no longer providing enough nutrition for your animal, bring in the supplements and these can be produced as well.
“What’s been proffered in the livestock strategy 2025 to 2035, is to identify these nitrogen-fixing, agroforestry shrubs that farmers can produce, to mitigate against climate change and get funding under climate finance,” he said.
Agroforestry trees like leucaena are nitrogen-fixing and their leaves are nutritious to animals, and can be produced to achieve climate change mitigation while solving the nutrition problem at a low budget.
“Similarly, you can produce some legume fodders (lablab and velvet bean) and legume hays and these can be used to make feed.
“But the scales of production are not yet there, if we were to take a dipstick and say how much silage/hay was produced by our farmers this year, it would be an embarrassing figure to say the least,” he added.
An animal scientist, researcher and academic, Mr Eddington Gororo said for livestock, drought preparedness hinged on veld and pasture management, water resources, fodder and forage planning and strategic destocking.
One farmer, Mr… Chinhamo who planted Juncao grass said the crop grew well in winter and its nutritive value was way better than banner grass with better biomass yielding over 200 tonnes per hectare per annum.
“If cut and fed at the right stage, crude protein content is around 18 percent and above. Potential is 400 tonnes per hectare under good management with 200 tonnes being a conservative figure under dryland,” he said.
