adminLuthandoMapepa
DROUGHT hit farmers in Chipinge in conjunction with Fintrac, a non-governmental organisation, have crafted survival strategies for their cattle by introducing the Feed the Future Zimbabwe Livestock Development programme (FTFZ-LD). Stranded farmers in the district have been selling their cattle at give away prices as the current dry spell heavily decimated livestock.
Fintrac Manicaland supervisor, Mr Meynard Chirima said the thrust of the programme was to boost cattle prices that have sharply declined in the past year following the drought.
He said the programme is also going to promote cattle marketing.
“The projects would improve the nutrition of cattle first so that the quality and quantity of meat increases. It is a priority that we improve the health of the cattle especially in the low-veld area. To this end we also provide loans to willing farmers to buy feeding inputs,” he said.
Mr Chirima said the programme complements Government’s ZimAsset cluster of value addition and beneficiation.
“Cattle are taken as a measure of wealth in our community and we are urging famers to embrace this programme. This will improve the farmers’ access to abattoirs and hence enable them to get fair prices for their cattle,” he said.
Mr Chirisa said farmers will also get free education on how to improve cattle health.
“Farmers created five groups in their respective areas for feed-lotting in Kondo, Evergreen, Musapingura, Chibunji and Batanai. Feed-lotting was introduced, as core survival strategy to increase value of cattle sold by farmers due to improved beef quality. Artificial insemination was also introduced to improve the breed of the cattle,” he said.
Online Reporter