The Sunday News
Mhlupheki Dube
THE advent of Foot and Mouth Disease in Matabeleland region resulted in closure of popular sale pens in Bulawayo.
Bulawayo had two cattle sale pens with one of them being very popular with commercial farmers and most of the well-to-do farmers who had the means of ferrying animals from outside Bulawayo.
The sale pens have remained closed since the outbreak of the troublesome disease last year. This has caused stress among livestock farmers who have largely felt hard done by the continued closure.
Farmers argue that they are bearing the brunt of the disease and they are left counting losses because of a disease whose prerogative of its control rests with the Government.
The Government has directed that cattle sales be decentralised to district and sub-district levels to control the disease and this has been met with mixed feelings with the affluent few section of farmers screaming to high heavens claiming that decentralising sales is contributing to the plummeting of livestock prices while the majority of smallholder rural farmers appreciate the model of decentralised sales as it brings the market to their door step.
While I empathise with farmers who used to sell their livestock in Bulawayo I think it is not true to link the drop in prices of livestock to decentralised sales.
Firstly, decentralised sales have always been there in most rural district councils. They may not have been as vibrant as the sale pens in Bulawayo but they have always been working. We must appreciate that the majority of livestock producers are the smallholder farmers in our rural areas and they need to sell their animals as well. There are a lot of districts where due to the abandoning of decentralised sales farmers have been left at the mercy of unscrupulous middlemen.
These are buyers who will not blink an eye even when robbing an illiterate widow. I argue here that the drop in livestock prices has absolutely nothing to do with the decentralisation of livestock sales or lack of it but a mere manifestation of the general decline in economic fundamentals of the country. There is simply no cash in the country and citizens’ spending power has been seriously reduced and beef has not been spared. In fact, evidence on the ground shows that a revival of decentralised sales has brought significant cash injections into previously cash dry communities.
I have personally witnessed a livestock sale leaving behind an excess of $42 000 in the community and the impact on the local economy at ward or village level is massive. School fees are paid, dipping levies and all sorts of financial obligations of community members. The local businesses suddenly record increased business.
There have been theories that buyers do not want to go out to rural areas and hence there is no competitive bidding at such sales. In that regard the problem is not the buyer but a loophole which is exploited by the buyers. It is no secret that most big buyers are abattoir operators and abattoirs continue to receive animals coming from outside Bulawayo and as such they have no reason or incentive to go out hunting for animals when these can flow into their premises without them breaking a sweat.
The answer therefore is that the Government should seriously consider prohibiting selling of animals directly to abattoirs but these should go out and buy directly from farmers at district level auction sales and then transport their animals to the abattoirs. If this is done no buyer will sit in his/her office unless if he/she is contemplating changing business.
It is the proposal of this pen that powers that be should ban direct sales to abattoirs and have a trial period to see how the livestock prices will respond at district level.
Lastly, the livestock prices are also affected by the small end of the value chain. There are basically less than five big buyers of livestock in Bulawayo and this creates a bottle neck at the end of the value chain which easily clogs when there is a sudden surge in supply of animals. We need more players at the end of the value chain, more abattoir operators and more meat wholesalers.
There are a lot big players in terms of livestock production but for some reason they are content with occupying the bottom end of the value chain which by definition has the lowest money and is subject to unmitigated manipulation by those at the market end of the value chain. Honestly, if you are running over 400 head of beef good quality animals what is stopping you from owning and operating an abattoir?
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