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Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
THE Department of Livestock Production and Development has submitted a report seeking the Government and the Food and Agriculture Organisation to come up with interventional strategies to avert livestock deaths in the wake of the drought situation.
DLPD director Mr Bothwell Makodza said his organisation and its development partner, World Vision carried out an assessment to ascertain the availability of grazing land in all the country’s provinces. DLPD is under the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development.
“One thing we know is that Matabeleland South and North and parts of Midlands, Masvingo and parts of Manicaland are always prone to drought. So what we were trying to do was to get prepared on what interventions we are going to do.
“We produced our report and together with our development partner we handed it over to FAO so that they can see when they can come in and we also handed the report to Government so that they can also see how best they can look at the situation that’s the best we did,” he said.
Mr Makodza said DLPD has been evaluating the condition of livestock in all provinces particularly those that are prone to drought in anticipation of getting aid in the event of impeding calamities.
“We don’t know up to now what form of assistance will be given but prior to this there were subsequent droughts like in 2012/13 when the Government chipped in with $3 million and that’s when also our development partners came in.
“FAO came in when they chipped in with quite large sums of money going towards feed and we managed to save quite a number of animals so we were thinking maybe we may get that form of support this year also,” he said.
DLPD Matabeleland South provincial livestock specialist Mrs Simangaliphi Ngwabi said cattle farmers should start feeding their animals with supplementary feed to guard against losses due to lack of grazing land.
“The worst scenario or situation is yet to come but the months of October-November are usually the worst and as such we advise farmers to offer their breeding cows supplements because the bullying season has started.
“Even animals to be used as draught power should also be given supplementary feed to ensure that they are in good condition before engaging on their task,” Mrs Ngwabi said.
Reports indicated that at least 12 cattle have already succumbed to poverty in the province’s Gwanda district this year.
Although the recorded cattle deaths are in Gwanda district so far. Beitbridge, Matobo, Bulilima, Insiza and Mangwe districts are likely to also start losing cattle.
Matabeleland region used to be the country’s prime cattle producing area but recurrent droughts since 1992 reportedly killed about 60 percent of the province’s herd.
Reports said over 12 000 cattle were lost due to drought in Matabeleland South in 2013 due to drought related challenges.
More than 350 000 cattle are at risk of succumbing to drought in Matabeleland South if no intervention measures are put in place to save the livestock in this cattle ranching region.
Mangwe Farmers Association chairman Mr Adam Bango Dube said the association has started putting cattle into feedlots so as to improve their condition.
“We have started inducting cattle at Bango, Brunapeg, Mabule, Sanzukwi and Smith Block feedlots. We are, however, going to relocate the cattle at Smith Block to another place because of water challenges there.
The cattle are not in their best of state and it won’t be wise for farmers to sell them in that state because they are likely to fetch very low prices that is why we are encouraging farmers to induct them into feedlots so as to improve their conditions,” he said.
Online Reporter