The Sunday News
THE announcement by the Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister responsible for livestock development Paddy Zhanda as quoted in last week’s edition of the Sunday News about plans to establish a sperm bank needs to be applauded.
I have written extensively in this very platform about the need to improve the quality of the communal herd and this could be the answer we have been waiting for, if the idea sees the light of the day.
There is no better department to spearhead the cleaning of the communal herd than the division of Livestock Development Department because this is the Government livestock extension department which is in contact with all of the communal herd which incidentally constitutes a larger chunk of the national herd.
It is not in dispute that the quality of the communal breed needs to be improved and this could be the first major step by Government towards addressing this very critical agricultural sector especially in southern parts of the country where livestock remains the mainstay of the local economy.
We applaud the Government for even thinking about it and in the same vein for indications that it is working towards addressing the thorny issue of cattle levies. These are both not small step but giant leaps which will involve moving some mountains and hence the appreciation of the effort.
However, improving quality of the communal herd should not be left to Government alone as there are other major players in the livestock value chain who definitely should play a part.
I am talking here about large private players such as abattoir operators and big meat wholesaling and butchery operators.
These are the players who benefit directly from an improvement in the quality of animals that they receive.
It is also common knowledge that these large private players in the livestock value chain are also large scale livestock commercial farmers and most of them own decent herds.
Is it therefore not possible that these players can loan their bulls perhaps the old ones to some communities, especially in Matabeleland North province and begin to change the breed bit by bit.
Evidence of how the presence of good quality bulls can change the community herd is there for everyone to witness in areas that share boundaries with large scale commercial livestock producers or areas where such producers used to be.
A case in point being the communal area around Bubi district which is characterised by generally improved breeds mostly of the Brahman blood.
This is not because the area has always been domiciled by exceptional farmers but it’s a result of sharing boundaries with large scale livestock farmers whose bulls sometimes stray into the communal herd and left seed there.
This article therefore pleads with big players in the livestock value chain to take an active role in improving the communal herd, if anything because it benefits them in their business.
If one of the giant abattoir operators in Bulawayo for example loans say 30 quality bulls into a district that will have massive impact in the long run and we begin to see areas which are traditionally known for small framed indigenous breeds taking to the market large framed quality animals.
All that is needed is an initial injection of the blood of these quality animals and there after communal farmers will make efforts themselves to seek such animals when the financially benefit of keeping such breeds has been demonstrated. Then we can begin to witness a trend in which there are more communal farmers than commercial farmers who come for the bull sale as the impact of a good bull begins to sink in their minds.
It is evolutionary but it can certainly happen. The days of big players in the livestock value chain ignoring or even neglecting the communal herd are over because this is the large livestock constituency now and if you plan to trade in livestock into posterity there just has to be some deliberate efforts to develop this sector from all the players involved including the private sector.
