Government commits to revitalise livestock sector

Sikhumbuzo Moyo – [email protected]
GOVERNMENT remains committed to revitalising the livestock sector as outlined by the Livestock Recovery and Growth Plan which entails expanding vaccination coverage and strengthening monitoring systems, meant to reduce disease outbreaks and improve herd health.

These efforts, said Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube as he presented the 2025 national budget, align with the broader goal of fostering sustainable livestock sector growth, promoting economic diversification and enhancing resilience in rural communities through climate-proofing and insurance of agriculture crops and livestock.

“In this regard, ZiG742.4 million has been set aside to support the following programmes in 2025, Presidential Blitz Tick-Grease scheme, construction and rehabilitation of dip tanks, laboratory diagnostic for animal disease screening and confirmation, local production of animal vaccines, cattle genetics improvement and artificial insemination,” said Prof Ncube.

He said extension services are critical to transforming the agriculture sector into viable business operations and the Government will continue to capacitate the provision of extension services with modern farming techniques and the necessary tools of trade (vehicles and laptops, among others) to empower farmers with advanced farming methods, emerging technologies and good agronomic practices.

Prof Ncube said extension services, through Vision 2030 Agriculture and Livelihoods Tracker (VALT) will assist in shifting from subsistence farming to a business-oriented model an initiative that will provide targeted advisory services, promote modern farming techniques and support value addition to drive productivity and sustainable growth whose end result is improved food security, increasing farmer incomes and foster rural development.
“In 2025, an amount of ZiG3.6 billion has been set aside for training and capacitation of extension and business advisory services to advance agriculture development programmes,” said Prof Ncube.