1 000 cattle die in Mat South

31 Jan, 2016 - 00:01 0 Views
1 000 cattle die in Mat South

The Sunday News

cattle-

Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Farming Reporter
THE number of cattle succumbing to the effects of drought in Matabeleland South Province continues to rise amid reports that over 1 000 have died so far.

According to the latest report by Department of Livestock Production and Development (DLPD) poverty has claimed 1 251 cattle in the province.

The reports state that 436 cattle have died in Matobo district, Bulilima (380), Mangwe (186), Insiza (66), Gwanda (65) and Umzingwane (13).

“We have received a report that quite a substantial number of cattle have died due to poverty in Matobo. The situation is proving to be serious throughout the province and we are likely to lose more animals if the drought persists,” said DLPD Matabeleland South provincial livestock specialist Mrs Simangaliphi Ngwabi.

The livestock specialist urged farmers to purchase supplementary stockfeed so as to guard against the depletion of their herds due to lack of grazing land.

“We are encouraging farmers to buy supplementary feed so that they can be able to save most of their animals. We cannot talk about other mitigation strategies right now.

“Farmers should just buy feed and those in areas that managed to get subsidised feed through the Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) should seize this opportunity to buy since the feed is relatively cheap,” Mrs Ngwabi said.

(FAO) distributed supplementary stockfeed in the country’s seven most drought hit districts in an effort to alleviate cattle from poverty deaths late last year.

In Matabeleland South the non-governmental organisation distributed the feed to four districts namely Gwanda, Beitbridge, Mangwe and Bulilima, two districts in Masvingo Province and Chipinge in Manicaland Province. The feed is being sold specifically to communal farmers at a subsidised price of $7 a bag.

Reports said over 12 000 cattle were lost due to drought in Matabeleland South in 2013 due to drought related challenges.

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