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Oliver Kazunga Chronicle Reporter
THE Government will soon embark on countrywide consultations with stakeholders in the agriculture sector to devise strategies to improve the national herd, an official has said.Due to successive droughts and a number of economic challenges the country went through in recent years, Zimbabwe’s livestock population continued to decline from more than six million in 1999 to below five million at present.
The newly appointed Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development responsible for the livestock sector Cde Paddy Zhanda said he would be convening a meeting today with his boss Minister Joseph Made on the state of the agriculture sector before the stakeholder consultations begin.
“The entire agriculture sector has taken centre stage of discussions in the past. Although, I am not new in the agriculture sector, we will have to sit down with my minister on Monday (today) for a briefing on the state of the livestock industry. After the briefing, we will soon embark on wide consultations with stakeholders to map the way forward,” he said.
Cde Zhanda would not be drawn into revealing their intended plan of action to boost the national herd.
“That will be discussed in the briefing before we embark on wide consultations with different stakeholders,” he said.
In the 2013 mid-term national budget, the Ministry of Finance highlighted that beef production is expected to marginally increase from an initial projection of 94 100 tonnes to 94 500 tonnes this year.
The growth in beef output is being driven by increased offtake from 3,5 percent to six percent as farmers off-load livestock owing to drought.
In an interview yesterday, former president of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union (ZCFU) Mr Donald Khumalo said they were prepared to work with the new Government in resuscitating the livestock sector.
“We are planning to call for an indaba where we will invite all livestock farmers in the region so that we have a collective, well defined and documented approach to address the livestock situation in the country.
At the indaba, we will also invite the Department of Livestock in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, as well as processors and non-governmental organisations.
“NGOs have a role to play in supporting the development of the livestock sector and we need to synchronise our operations so that we do not duplicate roles as stakeholders, this is the reason why we are planning for the livestock indaba,” said Mr Khumalo, a livestock farmer.
He said in the past stakeholders in the livestock industry did not have a strategy on how they could work together to revive the sector.
“We will have our plenary meeting on Tuesday. The good thing is under this new Government, we now have a full time minister to look at livestock sector. What needs to be done going forward is to incite funding specifically for the livestock industry.
“Funding must be availed like in the maize sector you will appreciate that there are a lot of people whose livelihood is livestock centred,” said Mr Khumalo.
Also to be deliberated during the indaba was the budget required to resuscitate the livestock industry.
Online Reporter