The Sunday News
THE rain that the country has been receiving since last week has brought a temporary reprieve to livestock farmers especially in arid Matabeleland South but experts warned farmers still need to take precautionary measures to save their cattle from the effects of drought.
At least 350 000 cattle in Matabeleland South Province were reportedly in danger of succumbing to the effects of drought this year as the country had received little rains.
Last month, the Matabeleland province’s chief livestock specialist Ms Simangaliphi Ngwabi had predicted that Matabeleland South was likely to lose more than half of its herd due to drought if intervention measures were not timeously put in place.
However, in an interview on Friday, Ms Ngwabi said the situation had improved following rains that pounded the country in the past weeks.
“There were rains that we received countrywide and we are now seeing grass and trees that were now wilting becoming green again. Before these rains we were expecting the worst but the rains have alleviated that problem and changed the situation for the better,” she said.
Although Government had advised farmers to destock in anticipation of drought, Ms Ngwabi said farmers must instead cull their cattle and remain with strong ones.
“Farmers should be culling their cattle and remove those that they don’t need. There is no need to destock but cull their cattle and remain with those that are productive,” she said.
She said due to the climate change, it was now difficult to determine if there was going to be drought as the rains were now sporadic.
Livestock Farmers Union chairman Mr Sifiso Sibanda said the rain had brought relief to farmers.
“There was natural intervention by the Lord as the rains brought a huge relief to livestock farmers. There were significant inflows in the dams and rivers, a development which is going to improve the situation,” he said.
Mr Sibanda, however, said there was need for long term intervention strategies to ensure that farmers do not lose their cattle every year due to drought.
“As Livestock Farmers Union, we are saying there is a need to have intervention strategies and come up with a good plan to save cattle from being affected by drought. We should anticipate for a drought and put measures that will ensure that cattle get supplementary feed. We want to come up with fodder banks and stock feeds banks which are critical for supplying pastures to cattle during the drought period,” said Mr Sibanda.
“We are also hoping that we get machinery to produce fodder. Currently FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) has come up with intervention strategies and we are appealing to other organisations to also follow suit,” he said.
He said his organisation was liaising with National Parks Management and conservancy owners to provide livestock farmers with relief grazing areas during droughts.
Mr Sibanda said destocking was not the best option as the province had already lost thousands of cattle due to drought.
He said cattle provided livelihood to many people in the country. Matabeleland South has about 636 441 cattle.
Zimbabwe Farmers Union president Mr Abdul Credit Nyathi also weighed in on Friday saying destocking was not the best way to save cattle from drought.
“The position of ZFU is that farmers should not destock but should rather enter into survival maintenance feeding of cattle whose cost is very insignificant to be termed de-stocking,” he said.
Mr Nyathi said it was unfortunate that destocking had been misconstrued to mean farmers must reduce their herd and use money for other purposes, which is not the case.
Mr Nyathi called upon Government to engage farmers and other stakeholders in livestock production and come up with a programme to reduce loss of cattle due to drought.
“Instead of encouraging destocking Government should educate farmers about self-reliance in their cattle business. This would enable farmers to learn more about saving animals during drought without much assistance,” he said.
He said under serious conditions all stakeholders should come up with strategies such as availing survival feed such as hay, molasses and manufactured survival feed with less nutrient content than pen feeding but enough to take the animal through the drought period.
“Cattle rearing is your business, gone are the days that the mindset was of the view that somebody would come to their assistance once the drought comes. Self-reliance should be the way forward.”
The president of the Federation of Young Farmers Association of Zimbabwe, Mr Philip Sewera said Matabeleland farmers should be careful not to sell their cattle at low prices in desperation to get money for grain.
He was warning farmers against being short-changed by people who wanted to take advantage of the drought situation in the region to lure them into selling their cattle at low prices or to exchange them for grain.
“You could be targeted and forced to sell their cattle at cheap prices because of the drought.”
He said farmers must move their cattle to places where they could be fed and sold at a profit or rent paddocks from other farmers who were not badly affected by the drought.
