The Sunday News
Farming issues, Mhlupheki Dube
Reading the Zimbabwe vulnerability assessment committee (ZimVAC) 2021 rural livelihoods assessment report will get every livestock enthusiast worried.
This is a periodic report which is produced by Government to provide a snap presentation of the status of the various food security indicators.
My discussion this week will zoom on the livestock sector as always but most importantly on a few parameters that are captured by this important report.
The report reveals that most livestock mortalities which are incurred by farmers are as a result of diseases (73 percent) followed by drought at 19percent.
Mortalities due to diseases are even higher in some provinces of Mashonaland such as Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central and Manicaland.
The main contributing disease being Theileriosis. What is worrisome about the statistics is that farmers are losing livestock to preventable causes, which is an indictment of the livestock management practices that our farmers are adopting.
The majority of the diseases that are killing farmers livestock are tickborne which means they can be easily and effectively controlled by regular dipping to control tick infestation on one’s animals.
However, a further look at the same report reveals only 41 percent of livestock farmers are practicing regular dipping. This obviously corroborates the high mortality percentage due to diseases.
The important question here being, why do farmers choose to neglect doing what they aught to do in order to protect their investment?
It is a no brainer that dipping for example is a time tested and proven practice that farmers need to religiously stick to in order to save their animals.
Why do livestock farmers want to be cranked and almost force marched to adopt a good practice which has been proven to work effectively? Shouldn’t it be second nature to do what promotes one’s business or investment?
In Matabeleland South 61 percent of their livestock mortality is due to drought. This is against a national average of 19 percent. In fact, cattle mortality due to diseases in Matabeleland South province is 29 percent which means drought is their major eliminator.
While it is tempting to discount drought as a force majeure (act of God) issue my view is that drought is such a regular occurrence in this province such that it is now a normal season which is a surprise occasion!
There are proven climate smart and drought mitigation measures that are promoted by Government and development partners through extension provision and I have no doubt that if these are adopted they can save a lot of animals from dying and reduce the percentage significantly.
A drought is never a surprise because as early as January a livestock farmer already knows that the season is good or it is bad for his or her animals and hence the planning should start then.
My point is that livestock losses due to both diseases and drought are preventable and the majority of farmers know what they need to do to prevent these losses! I will understand if your animals are swept away to the ocean by a sudden flood because it is a rare occurrence which will probably occur once in your entire lifetime but not such regular occurrences as drought.
There are a number of livestock management practices that would contribute significantly to reduction of livestock mortality but these are also surprisingly very lowly adopted by farmers as captured in the report. These include practices such as vaccinations, dosing and dipping.
This means farmers are losing animals to diseases when they could easily prevent this by simply vaccinating their animals as protection against some of those diseases. I have written about the need to adopt vaccination as a good practice therefore I will not belabour the same issue here.
The national livestock growth strategy which is currently being promoted by government should seriously look at means of ensuring livestock farmers adopt good animal husbandry practices that will save the national herd from unnecessary mortalities.
Adoption of effective animal health and animal nutrition management strategies should drive the national livestock growth strategy. We cannot continue to have livestock farmers losing animals to totally avoidable circumstances.
Reducing livestock mortalities should also be a measurable performance appraisal issue for our extension officers on the ground. Reduction of livestock mortalities should not be an accident but a result of a deliberate and meticulous extension strategy.
Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.
- Mhlupheki Dube is a livestock specialist and farmer. He writes in his personal capacity. Feed back [email protected]/ cell 0772851275
