Vusumuzi Dube
Amanda Mlevu, Sunday News Reporter
THE government will soon be providing hay bales, drilling rigs as well as ensuring the availability of water bowsers as they work on curbing the number of livestock deaths due to water shortages.
In the past three months, close to 5 000 head of cattle have died due to the shortage of water and diseases countrywide with Matabeleland region being the most affected.
In a statement, Matabeleland North acting Agriculture Advisory and Rural Development Services (ADARS) director in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Mr Dumisani Nyoni confirmed the migratory measure that were being embarked on by the government.
“Since rains have not rained as we all expected for us to be able to feed our cattle, in places where it has not rained already there is no hope for livestock to survive, so the government will help us with hay bales, drilling rigs and water bowsers,” said Mr Nyoni.
He said people should not only rely on help from the government, but be able to look for other means to keep the animals alive.
“If cattle stay seven days without drinking water a cow dies and we don’t want that, so we need to look for survival feeding like buying feed depending on how much you can afford. It is better to do that than just watch all of them die,” said Mr Nyoni.
He said the government is under a program to provide farmers with hay bales because they help supply livestock farmers with affordable feed.
“The government will drill boreholes and also renew damaged ones as most drinking points are dry. This will enable farmers to be able to prevent livestock from dying,” he said.
Mr Nyoni also revealed that not every livestock death is caused by drought but rather some of the deaths are caused by diseases and people should plunge dip their livestock to avoid ticks and other diseases.
Bongani Ndlovu