The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Farming Reporter
A BULAWAYO-BASED livestock supplying and breeding firm, Michview Enterprises Private Limited has stepped up its goat production commercialisation drive as part in a bid to ensure communal farmers realise potential value from their small stock.
Michview Enterprises technical manager Mr Lindani Ncube said the goat commercialisation programme, which the company started in 2017 under the Livestock Food Support Programme together with two non-governmental organisations namely Palladium and Extra Projects targeting communal farmers has started yielding positive results.
“As Michview Enterprises we have worked right across the country with small holder goat producers to spearhead goat commercialisation. We have a lot of success stories for instance in Gokwe, one of our Boer Cross buck (male goat) named ‘Lindani’. We introduced to a community there, had over 52 kids in one and half years before they disposed it to other breeders so as to minimise internal breeding.
“In Beitbridge we did a similar exercise and during a farmer training workshop, a Cross Boer buck aged two and a half years with a live mass of 79 kilogrammes was slaughtered and after slaughter the cold dressed mass was 42 kilogrammes With these two scenarios, if farmers are driving towards turning commercially, it’s clear they have to up their game to get maximum benefits from their goats,” he said.
Mr Ncube said the company was still engaged in the goat commercialisation programme despite the winding up of the Livestock Food Support Programme.
“We are still engaged in the goat commercialisation programme because normally we are engaged by NGOs for sustainability of projects in the event that their funding lapses up. As it is, we engaged in a similar project, the Value Chain Alliance for Livestock Upgrading Empowerment (VALUE) project, which is run under the Zimbabwe Agricultural Growth Programme (ZAGP),” he said.
ZAGP is a four-year programme, which will end in 2023 and is being implemented by Action Aid Zimbabwe as the lead organisation in partnership with COSV and Mercy Corps with Michview as one of the players in the goat value chain.
Late last year the programme saw the importation of high breed goats from Namibia in a bid to improve the country’s genetics and marketing of the small stock.
A total of 224 goats, which comprised the Kalahari Red, Boer and Saneen breeds were delivered into the country from Namibia.
“Under ZAGP we have high quality genetics and we will be providing farmers with these genetics for cross breeding purposes. They will have an option of buying pure breed bucks, F2s (filial generation of offspring of distinctly different parental types) and F3s animals. Good management of these animals will be key to the farmers’ success. The crosses will adapt well because they already have the local blood and management practices and starters are not encouraged to buy them, if they don’t have the skill,” said Mr Ncube.
Goats make up the second largest population of domesticated ruminant animals in the country with the national herd estimated to be more than 3,8 million.
At least 95 percent of the national goat herd is owned by smallholder farmers who rarely breed the goats for commercial purposes. Matabeleland South is mainly home to the slightly bigger breed, the Matabele goat while the smaller south eastern bred commonly referred to as the Mashona goat is found in most parts of the country.
Mr Ncube said although indigenous breeds are highly prolific and adaptive to local climatic conditions there was a need for farmers to cross breed them with exotic breeds such as the Boer and Kalahari goats so as to increase their animals’ carcass weight.
“Of late farmers in the northern part of Matabeleland have been cross breeding and getting bigger progeny (offsprings), that’s good for business because the carcass weight of the progeny will be bigger than that of the local indigenous goats. For instance, a small south eastern African goat that we slaughtered during an outreach programme in Tinde in Binga (District) had 27 kgs live weight and after slaughter the cold dressed mass was 12.3 kgs. Farmers need to work on improving the cold dressed mass to at least 17 to 20 kgs. A lot of work needs to be done so as to improve the carcass weight and it includes cross breeding with improved breeds, which we supply to the farmers,” he said.
Mr Ncube said a lot needs to be done to improve goat production in the country.
“Goat production is under developed, there are no formal markets, prices are not very attractive to the farmers. We have lots of goats but the drive to attract farmers to improve goat farming lies on availability of markets and unavailability of markets defies the reason for our existence as Michview. We exist to breed top genetics and also to link up farmers to lucrative markets on a win-win basis,” he said.
Mr Ncube further lamented the non-existence of a goat policy as stifling the production of the small stock.
“We don’t have policies that govern goat production. Goats are also not dipped regularly like cattle yet they form the backbone of income to a larger population of communal farmers. We have a lot to do as a country. We have lost a lot of potential revenue from goats over the years and there is need for the Government to review policies that promote goat and sheep production. Besides, goats maybe a big source of foreign currency. In short ‘goats are gold’,” he said.
Mr Ncube said, however, the demand for goat meat locally and in foreign markets was growing largely due to its health benefits.
“Consumption of goat meat has reached its highest levels. You will hardly see goat meat in the shelves because of high demand. Goat meat has its good health benefits as well with most people being recommended to consume it because of its low cholesterol levels.
It’s competing with beef, fish and chicken and it provides a wider choice for consumers instead of being limited to a few products. Most people prefer goat meat during gatherings or during holidays when they observe their religious activities and during these times consumption balloons,” he said.
@DNsingo
