The Sunday News
ONE of the most frequent and legitimate complaints I get from a number of livestock buyers and sellers is that the process is cumbersome and hence a fertile breeding ground of corruption and stock theft.
The argument presented is that a farmer wishing to sell his/her livestock has to march to hell and back trying to comply with provisions of the legislation.
This includes among other things going to collect police details and veterinary personnel so that they come and complete clearance papers for the animals being sold.
While the need to have police presence in any transaction involving livestock is indisputable it suffices to say this requirement was conceived with assumptions of adequately resourced Government departments.
These are departments which could easily drive themselves to the farmer’s place at no cost to the farmer.
However, at the moment the farmer has to foot the bill to provide transport to Government personnel needed for the process to go through.
It is not always as easy as just driving to a police station and collecting police officers and passing through the veterinary office to collect vet personnel.
More often than not some of these offices have thin human resources and a farmer may not always get the help he needs at that particular time.
I know a police station where they have put a condition that a farmer has to book in advance so that he/she can get police officers to clear his/her animals on a date of his/her need.
While this could seem like an easy task with everyone thinking, well you could just call and book, what about some rural farmer deep in the woods with the nearest police station and Government offices 40 kilometres away?
With this obvious complication of mobility and logistics the farmer will now have to rely on the buyer to bring along the required Government personnel and this is often used as a bargaining tool against the farmer with the buyer claiming to have already incurred costs of transporting the officers.
The point of my discussion is that while the legislation governing the procedure of selling livestock was designed to guard against stock theft by making it difficult to just sell an animal without due diligence being followed, the logistical complications could be creating avenues for corruption and under the table type of dealings.
Some corners are cut in obvious defeat of the noble intentions of the legislation. I am, however, glad that the powers-that-be are aware of the challenges that are being faced by farmers in trying to sell their animals as revealed by remarks of the Deputy Minister responsible for livestock development in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Mr Paddy Zhanda at a function a few months ago.
He reiterated the same concern of the hardships that are encountered by farmers when they try to sell their animals and revealed that as a department they were in the process of having a re-look at the whole system.
As part of trying to make it less painful for farmers to sell their animals government can seriously consider revamping organised livestock auctions at community level so that farmers can have reliable markets and may not find a need to sell animals behind their granaries.
Local authorities need to have regular and well patronised livestock auctions with real buyers who are willing to offer competitive market prices for the animals and not some rented buyers who are at times seen buying for the auctioneer conducting the auctions.
Farmers need to know that they will be able to sell their animals when they need to because the auctions are done regularly and religiously and the price being offered is fair. Another advantage of having organised cattle auctions is that stock theft can be reduced as it is highly unlikely that a thief can drive someone’s animal to the auction sales because half the people present are likely to recognise the animal and its bona fide owner.
If cattle sale pens can be established in every ward and auctions are conducted every month this might actually minimise private selling of livestock and reduce levels of stock theft. Farmers can actually help local authorities to construct these sale pens where they are not available. If they can construct their feedlots they surely can construct their sale pens.
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