Livestock target ambitious: Farmers | Business Times

 

TANATSWA  KANDENGA  AND  LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

 

The government’s target of six million cattle by the end of 2024 is probably unrealistic given the difficulties impeding livestock production, including illnesses, high taxes, and drought brought on by El Nino phenomena, farmers have said.

Due to the El Nino-induced drought, ranchers are having difficulty meeting their feed needs since maize and other feed-related crops are scarce and suppliers are raising prices as a result of irregular rainfall patterns.

 

A myriad of taxes in the livestock sector has caused  domesticated animals  to be expensive to rear and sell thereby pushing meat prices upwards.

 

Founder and chairman of Goat Breeders Association of Zimbabwe Dr Divine Ndhlukula said : “The livestock sub sector just like any sector is facing challenges with the currency  instability as it is now very expensive to buy feeds, doses  and maintain a healthy herd.

 

“On top of that challenge, we now have the 15% Value Added Tax  that is a big issue as well  as it has increased all prices across the value chain.”

 

She said raw materials unavailability is complicating the proper rearing  of livestock.

 

“Currently, maize  is unavailable to allow us to make our own feeds which becomes a challenge as buying everything from the retailers makes  feed very expensive,”Dr  Ndhlukula said.

 

Government seeks to maintain and grow the national cattle herd by putting in place measures to reduce the threat of tick borne diseases through animal health surveillance systems and rehabilitation of dip tanks across the country.

 

The Treasury has set aside ZWL$42.4bn   for dip chemical procurement including 1.5 million kilogrammes of tick grease for distribution to smallholder livestock producers to contain the prevalence of tick-borne diseases (January diseases) during the high rainfall period season in 2024.

 

This year,  the government has set aside ZWL$3.5bn  targeting the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of 500 dip tanks across the country.

 

Despite the government’s concerted efforts, January disease inspired cattle deaths were recorded between December December 2023 and January 2024.

 

The disease has remained a menace to ranchers and has left some kraals closed.

 

The resurgence of January disease comes as  drought related has taken a toll on many ranchers as  a  total of 1 488 523 cattle were identified as high-risk animals prone to drought with 7643 cattle already dead.

 

“With the current drought, ranchers are facing   serious water challenges  as some communal farmers were travelling 15km for the animals to drink water,” she added, saying that  anthrax is  affecting communal farmers and urgent vaccination is needed to stop deaths.

 

Knowing the El Nino threat, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion  minister Professor Mthuli Ncube  in his 2024 Budget Statement said ranchers should move their stock to areas which had not been affected by drought.

 

“The anticipated poor rainfall season during the 2023/24 will compromise livestock production, hence,  government will implement mitigatory measures to protect the national herd through the following measures: setting up modalities to relocate stock from highly vulnerable areas, to regions with minimal exposure to the potential drought; hay baling targeting stock in moderate exposure; and  encouraging farmers with smaller herd sizes to destock part of the herd to manageable levels and preserve value of the excess stock,” Prof Ncube said.

 

Chipinge based rancher, Lawrence Takawira told Business Times that more boreholes should sink boreholes to help farmers during dry season.

 

“We are facing serious feed and water shortages during the dry season. There is a need for more underground water sources as the available sources dries up earlier due to poor rainfall patterns in the past few years.

 

“Drilling more boreholes will enable us to establish and irrigate our own pastures so save the animals. We also face some challenges with predators from the nearby game park during the calving season and there is need for proper management of wildlife from the authorities,” Takawira said.

 

Kadoma based breeder  Peter Machakwa said : “As cattle ranchers we end up coming  up with our own feeds for us to supplement the herd during the dry season and we have realised that the best way to keep your livestock health is to supplement the protein feeds during the dry season is urea concentrate”.

Machakwa added that climate change is affecting the livestock farmers and El-nino has affected the farmers as crops were affected  hence feed making will be more expensive.

 

He said:” As a result of climate change yields have been reduced and it has a great impact on livestock production as we are not able to do pen fattening  and the capacity is limited.

“Due to climate change crops are now unable to reach the maturity stage as the rain season seems  to be very short , pastures are now limited   and the crops are too expensive for us to make animal feeds.”

He added that the government has to educate communal farmers as they contribute 60 percent of the livestock to the national herd.

 

Machakwa said the government has to help the farmers in terms of feed as in Matebeleland they lose more than ten thousand livestocks which is a threat to the national herd.

Machakwa said : “January  disease has affected the whole country since 2022 and farmers have to make sure their livestock are dipped most of the time and also lack information as many farmers must have information about the  livestock trends”.

He argued that dependance syndrome has affected the production to communal farmers as they depend with  the government to make sure their cattles have dipped as they are protecting the national herd.

 

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