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THERE is a need for the government to implement a cattle restocking programme that will boost Zimbabwe’s cattle herd by more than double, the Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) has said.
At present, Zimbabwe is not self sustaining in terms of supplying beef for local consumption, and imports of around 60 percent of the beef consumed in the country.
In an interview with BH24, ZFU president Abdul Nyathi said Zimbabwe presently has a total of five million head of cattle around the whole country, but the beef consumption rate is not tallying with breeding levels, resulting in the importation of beef into the country at high prices.
“Government must take the advantage of the abundance grazing due to good rains and support farmers with projects to boost the sector.
“Abattoirs and butchery dealers slaughter breeding cattle and that result in short supply of the required beef in the country,” he said. Zimbabwe is importing beef from countries in the region including Botswana, South Africa and Zambia. “The country is producing 40 percent of the consumed beef and 60 percent is imported from other countries,” he said.
Nyathi added that government must introduce re-stocking programmes to assist local farmers how to increase the number of stock in their farms.
The recently allocated new farmers are not equipped with knowledge on how keep cattle which needs stakeholder assistance.
“Farmers need to be assisted through issuing of loans from banks and projects oriented to livestock rearing which can boost cattle roduction to meet the required consumption and the foreign market. Minister of Finance and Economic Development Patrick Chinamasa in the 2015 National Budget allocated $1 million for livestock production in the upcoming year.”
The ZFU president said an increase in cattle heads will help reduce the cost of meat in the country and generate revenue for the growth of the sector through the exportation of meat and meat-products to other foreign markets, including the region.
In the past years Zimbabwe was well known for producing quality meat and high volumes of meat to the international market and for local consumption. — BH24.
Online Reporter