Land utilisation plan important for increased livestock production

Mhlupheki Dube

I AM aware that there is a land audit running in some districts.

I am also aware that the land issue is a sensitive matter and hence I have no intention of roasting my fingers.

However, it is my conviction that as we do the land audit, the final intervention in response to the findings should be inspired by a careful thought process whose primary aim is to optimise use of this value resource which is being highly under-utilised.

My submission is that there is a serious need to separate villagers from farmers in terms of settlement.

The term villager in this context refers to a person whose only need for land is to construct a homestead and find a dwelling place for his family with very minimal interest in engaging in productive farming.

A farmer in this context is a person who seeks to utilise land for agricultural productivity.

It is my hypothesis that the bunching together of the two types of land users is reducing the productive potential of the land.

I also hazard to draw a nexus between bunching together villagers and livestock farmers and the level of vandalism of critical livestock infrastructure in our farms.

It is not in contention that critical livestock infrastructure that some farmers inherited in the farms have been either stolen or vandalised and top among such infrastructure are the boundary and paddocking fences.

I don’t want to think that livestock farmers who are into serious production and have their eyes on increased productivity can be the same farmers stealing and vandalising the fences.

It has to be someone who has no use for the fence. I have seen some villagers who have no toilet in their homestead but somehow their homestead and field has barbed wire perimeter and the wire has irregular joining points and made out of different colour shades!

As to how someone will have the luxury of a fenced homestead and crop field but fail to afford construction of a pit latrine baffles the mind.

Yet somehow the paddocking fences seem to be disappearing without trace.

Recently we have seen erection of the highway fence along the Plumtree-Bulawayo highway up to Ntabazinduna areas.

The fence is meant to prevent livestock from straying into the road and causing accidents that lead to loss of property and life.

It is sad to note that barbed wire strands are beginning to vanish in some areas and this will continue with no one getting arrested until all the fence disappears.

I then ask myself if these people who had their livestock protected from being hit by vehicles could be the same people stealing this fence.

Why are they not policing this fence which is undoubtedly saving their animals? Are these livestock farmers or keepers?

My take is these could be livestock keepers who probably found themselves accidentally owning a few animals from their walk of life and they have no passion about this sector.

You add to that list, villagers whose only interest is a place of dwelling not agricultural productivity then you have a significant number of people who are in farming land but all they needed is dwelling residence.

My submission therefore, is that where we have an opportunity to correct the error of bunching together villagers and farmers let’s separate them so that we let those with a common interest be together.

This will make working and investing in common but important assets possible.

I have witnessed serious tension among livestock farmers and those without animals when there is a need to do work that benefits those with livestock, for example clearing fireguards to protect the veld; repairing boundary and paddock fences; maintenance work at the local dam and so on.

My take is that if serious livestock farmers are allocated land together they can easily develop the land and be productive because these are people who have a keen interest in increasing their productivity and are willing to put their skin on it.

This is when we will begin to see massive and serous utilisation of the land to the ultimate benefit of the nation as we all so wish it does.
Uyabonga umntaka MaKhumalo.

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