The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Farming Reporter
FARMING experts are calling on the Government and non-governmental organisations to urgently come up with intervention measures to curb the unabated cattle deaths in the Matabeleland region due to drought-related effects.
Department of Veterinary Services Matabeleland North provincial officer Dr Polex Moyo said the Government and its partners should play a pivotal role in mitigating against loss of livestock due to drought in the affected areas to ensure food and nutrition security at household as well as at national level, further stating that the mitigation strategies should be implemented timeously before the death of animals.
“There’s a need for Government and NGOs to pay particular attention to the plight of cattle in Matabeleland. There hasn’t been much that has been said about the drought but in essence this prolonged dry spell has seriously affected the condition of cattle in the region as a whole,” said Dr Moyo.
He said incalf and lactating cows were the most affected as their condition needs high energy efficiencies.
“Cattle are really in bad shape with most incalf and lactating cows dying due to lack of pastures and water. To make matters worse farmers are failing to dip their animals due to unavailability of reliable water sources near their dip tanks while other animals don’t even have strength to plunge into dip tanks due to lack of energy,” said Dr Moyo.
Matabeleland South provincial Crop and Livestock officer Mrs Simangaliphi Ngwabi reiterated Dr Moyo’s sentiments, stating that the number of cattle deaths continue to rise in her area of jurisdiction owing to the erratic rainfall.
“The rain has been very erratic in the province with some districts still to receive any meaningful precipitation and as such we have lost many cattle due to poverty. I don’t have statistics of the animals that have died but the numbers continue to swell,” she said.
Mrs Ngwabi said farmers should introduce their cattle to supplementary feeding to guard against losses.
“We are only emphasising that livestock farmers should introduce their animals to supplementary feeding. However, due to the prevailing economic conditions we are facing, most farmers are failing to buy supplements as the prices are unstable.
“Even if a farmer sells some of his animals to buy feed they are unlikely to get much of it as the prices are very exorbitant. As it is we are faced with a predicament of what advice should we tell the farmers because there isn’t any other solution than to pray for adequate rains,” she said.
In 2016 the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) distributed supplementary stock feed in the country’s seven most drought hit districts in an effort to alleviate cattle from poverty deaths.
The feed was sold specifically to communal farmers at a subsided price of $7 a bag.
@DNsingo
