The Sunday News
THE importance attached to livestock, especially cattle in Zimbabwe’s communities and elsewhere in Africa is well-documented and immeasurable. This is because cattle are a status symbol and a form of currency.
Cattle are also used as an exchange mechanism and a store of value and therefore, it is the dream of many Zimbabweans to own a sizeable herd of cattle if not hundreds of them, to flaunt one’s wealth. This is because many also view cattle as a form of investment or a store of wealth.
However, at the moment thousands of Zimbabweans across the country, especially smallholder and communal farmers, are in a dilemma and are having sleepless nights as a result of the current situation, where they are racing against time to save their livestock against the El Nino-induced drought.
Pastures have depleted in many parts of the country, leaving farmers with no option but to destock in a bid to buy feed for their animals. That is where the problem has started now.
Cunning middlemen and unscrupulous as well as pseudo-businesspeople are now preying on the desperate and panicking farmers and are buying the animals at very low prices.
We are told that in some areas these pseudo-businesspeople are offering as little as $150 for a fully grown and huge beast, which under normal circumstances would cost above US$500.
It is against this background that we call upon the authorities to come to the rescue of now desperate farmers and assist with affordable feed or loans, so that they are able to purchase stockfeed.
The reason why the farmers are desperate to sell their animals is because they want to use the money to buy stockfeed.
We also agree with the sentiments of our livestock columnist, Mhlupheki Dube, who has suggested that it is time all players in the livestock value chain be they banks, feed manufacturers, transporters, abattoir operators, drug retailers and butcheries just to mention a few, come together and share what each of them is willing to do as a drought mitigation measure.
As Dube pointed out, that could be in the form of a bank offering livestock farmers loans in terms of stockfeed, or stockfeed manufacturers themselves willing to trade stockfeed for livestock.
In our front page, we are carrying a story that paints a very gloomy picture of the livestock sector in the country.
Desperate farmers are coming as far as Binga, Gokwe and Lupane to sell their cattle to big players in the beef value chain in Bulawayo, after failing to get real value for their animals from where they come from.
On arrival, they are met with a sad story that the abattoirs have suspended buying, to clear what they already have in their lairage, due to an oversupply of cattle that is not matched with the demand for meat.
Most are made to wait at their own cost and without knowing whether they will be served satisfactorily.
They have to endure the costs of feeding their animals, as going back with them would mean forking out more in transport costs, which then eats into whatever little they are trying to save. In the desperation of their situation, they are forced to dispose of their wealth for a song and it is not fair.
We call upon the abattoirs to wear a human face and adorn a morally upright business ethic and offer a fair price to the desperate farmers, bearing in mind that their survival today will guarantee the continued existence of their business.
The Government has, however, been playing ball mindful of the fact it is not called a national herd for nothing.
The Government derives a lot of benefits from the national herd and any threats to its depletion should worry it since it means that the communities will depend more on the Government than before while money will be pumped out importing beef and other animal products, not to mention the laying off of thousands of employees that are employed in the many value chains.
It is against this background that we are confident that our Government as usual will come up with a solution to save the farmers from this trying situation. It has done it before.
We also call upon all stakeholders to put their hands on the deck and save the situation for the desperate farmers.
No effort is too small.
