The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Farming Reporter
LIVESTOCK stakeholders are working on setting-up a Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Fund for the procurement of vaccines in a bid to contain outbreaks of the infection in the country.
Last month the Zimbabwe Association of Abattoirs (ZAA) proposed to contribute a voluntary levy of $2 per cattle head slaughtered to a special purpose account to facilitate the importation of FMD vaccines.
However, the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development had suggested that the levy be pegged at $5 so as to effectively combat the disease.
“It’s (the Fund) important because there are no funds. I think it’s only fair for us as stakeholders and it must encompass everybody because at the end of the day if we don’t do anything who is going to be prejudiced? It’s going to be producers. It’s going to be us (abattoirs), we are being prejudiced,” said ZAA chairman Mr Roger Tavares.
He said the issue to increase the levy as proposed by the ministry would be deliberated on if the stakeholders come up with a quantum.
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development responsible for livestock production, Paddy Zhanda said the initiative being undertaken by players in the livestock industry was important as it will ensure the survival of the sector.
“As a Ministry and as Government even from a Zim Asset point of view there is an element where Government recognises the element of Public Private Partnerships, joint ventures where the Government initiate the private sector to take charge of their own destiny and that’s exactly what we want to see whereby the private sector is involved in the welfare of their own sector,” he said.
The country is reported to have spent at least $4 million since the outbreak of the disease in April with reports that the 400 000 doses purchased by Government and another 400 000 that was recently procured by the Food Agriculture Organisation had been exhausted.
Dep Minister Zhanda said the country requires a minimum of two million or more doses of vaccine to curb the disease.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union Matabeleland North provincial chairman Mr Winston Babbage said there were no further outbreaks that were reported in the Matabeleland region and the Midlands Province for over a month but hinted that FMD vaccines were needed as boosters in some parts of Matabeleland.
“There are no further outbreaks of FMD in Matabeleland and Midlands. However, 70 000 doses of vaccines are required to boost certain FMD clusters in our region and funds are unavailable hence the need for a fund to be set up at the abattoir.
“We had proposed $2 per animal but the Ministry has come up with $5, the justification being that the Ministry has negotiated a downward rate on rural cattle levy from 10,5 percent to five percent awaiting parliamentary approval,” Mr Babbage said.
Before the advent of FMD outbreak in 2001, Zimbabwe used to export its beef to Europe.
Although a disease of low mortality, the global impact FMD is colossal due to the huge numbers of animals affected. This impact can be separated into two components mainly direct losses due to reduced production and changes in herd structure and indirect losses caused by costs of FMD control, poor access to markets and limited use of improved production technologies.
