Published by the government of Zimbabwe
23 October 2007
Harare — Cattle producers have been urged to increase their production by implementing sound management and animal health strategies through the development of sustainable breeding programmes.
Speaking during the Windmill Cattle field day at Doon Side Farm in Mutorashanga last week, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Cde David Chapfika, said the Cold Storage Company had resumed beef exports to regional and far East markets such as Hong Kong.
"Malaysian veterinarians visited our country recently to inspect some of the CSC facilities with a view to importing beef from here. We are hopeful that in the near future, this market will also be available to us," he said. He added that these strategies would involve developing sustainable breeding programmes and adopting high management standards to achieve quality and maximum breeds.
"Pedigree cattle play a very important part in the cattle industry-in recent years, this component has decreased significantly. There is urgent need to protect all remaining pedigree herds and to expand their numbers by encouraging the introduction of new players into this field," he said. Cde Chapfika said the most rapid way of increasing production in tropical countries like Zimbabwe was to improve the management and husbandry of animals.
He said land reforms, which decongested communal areas, brought challenges of veld fires and it is critical for the nation to address the degradation of lands through improved range land management. "We need to protect our grazing land from veld fires by creating fire guards and introducing fire controls in the curriculum at agricultural colleges. "The loss of valuable grass for grazing by uncontrolled bush fires must be stopped by every possible means," he said.
He added that a good beef breed can not perform under an environment that has been burnt out where there is poor nutrition, poor animal disease control, and general poor management.
"To this effect, most breeding programmes have failed as the improvements in farmers' management practices have lagged behind the improvement in genetics. It is therefore, imperative that both Government and the private sector join hands to educate farmers on good cattle management," he said. Cde Chapfika said farmers were facing a major challenge in feeding their cattle when there is inadequate grazing that form the bulk of their maintenance diet in the dry season. He said there was also a shortage of stock feeds in the country owing to the shortages of raw materials such as maize, soya beans, wheat bran and cotton seed cake.
"Farmers must develop strategies to substitute these raw materials if their cattle are to avoid malnutrition or at worst, starvation. Thin animals have poor reproductive performances, and limited resistance to diseases and parasites, all resulting in low performances or productivity," he added. Cde Chapfika, however, urged companies that produce stock feed, pharmaceutical and dip chemical manufacturing industries to continue training farmers which will have a long term positive impact on the live stock sector. "Training programmes should also be extended to cover other areas like animal health and breeding in order to give our farmers a complete package," he said.
He added that the Government was working on creating an environment that is conducive for farmers to rebuild the national beef herd to above pre-land reform period both in numbers and quality. "This will enable our country not only to achieve food self sufficiency, but to produce surplus to our local needs and benefit from foreign currency generated through exports to the region and beyond.
"The Government will continue coming up with win-win pricing regime, like foreign currency from exports such as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's import parity pricing scheme," he said.
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