The Sunday News
Njabulo Bhebe, Business Reporter
THE construction of a Goat Holding Centre at Matopos Research Station outside Bulawayo is set to be completed by this month, paving way for improved goat farming in the country.
The project is part of a four-year European Union funded Value Chain Alliance for Livestock Upgrading Empowerment (VALUE) programme set to end in 2023 which is being implemented by Action Aid Zimbabwe as the leading organisation in partnership with COSV and Mercy Corps together with private sectors livestock players.
Responding to questions from Sunday News, Business Action Aid Zimbabwe team leader Mr Newton Chari said they were looking at finalising the construction of the holding centre later this month with 95 percent of the job already accomplished.
“The animal handling centre is now standing at 95 percent completion with most of the key infrastructure now in place including a plunge pool dip tank, six goat holding pens and a guard room. We recently completed the installation of the roofing for the goat holding pens and installation of the water supply system which comprises two storage tanks and piping system. All works on the goat holding centre will be completed by the 25th of September 2020 and this will be followed by an exercise to pilot the use of the structures by the private integrator who is a partner in the project,” he said.
Mr Chari said the completion of the holding centre would play a pivotal role in linking farmers with buyers at the same time being a major boost for farmers through ensuring they received fair value of the proceeds.
“For long there have been challenges on the collection and aggregation of goats from rural districts to the major markets with brokers and middlemen dominating that function depriving farmers of a fair value of the income generated in the value chain,” he said.
“Through the goat holding centres, farmers are able to aggregate their stocks of goats brought from their various district associations and build viable and long-term linkages with abattoirs and supermarkets for the supply of goats in bulk at competitive prices that will benefit the farmers. The goat holding centres present an opportunity for farmer groups to assume value chain integration strategies through direct access to the meat markets that offer competitive prices to the small to medium producers.”
The project has so far seen US$40 000 being invested into the animal handling facility and construction of other Goat Improvement Centres (GICs) in the 12 districts. They are in varying stages awaiting completion in due course.
“A total of US$40 000 has been invested in this animal handling facility and in total we are constructing 12 goat improvement centres in the 12 districts where we are operating (Mbire, Rushinga, Chikomba, Mudzi, Chipinge, Buhera, Gwanda, Beitbrigde, Matobo, Nkayi, Lupane and Binga). So far, we have started construction of 110 of the 12 districts with progress at varying levels across,” he said.
Mr Chari said the early breeding programme initiated last year in December was progressing well and new breeds have been produced with more being expected to follow.
“After importation into the country the goats were delivered to our two private integrators namely Michview Enterprises in Matopos and Zvikomborero farm in Chikomba district as well as Government research stations Matopos Research Station and Grasslands Research Station for breeding and crossing with local breeds. Breeding is ongoing and a significant number of the does have kidded with more expected to drop in the coming months. Breeding will continue, crossing imported breeds with indigenous goats to produce F1, F2, and F3 generations which will be sold to anchor farmers, small to medium scale farmers by the integrators and research institutions at the Goat Improvement Centres (GICs).”
He said at the 12 GICs farmers will be able to bring in their local breeds for crossing at a fee to improve their local goats breeds.
“This will allow them pursing commercial production to fetch more income from the markets as a results of improved carcass weights,” he said.
In a bid to improve the country’s genetic and marketing of the small stock a total of 224 goats comprising the Kalahari Red, Boer and Saneen breeds were delivered into the country from Namibia last year and the project which is run under the Zimbabwe Agricultural Growth Programme has necessitated the need for GICs in facilitating goat production.
