The Government is reviewing the cattle restocking programme in Southern Province to assist the farmers that lost their animals to cattle diseases.

Southern Province Permanent Secretary, Gladys Kristafor said the Government was committed to helping the farmers who lost their animals due to Contagious Bovine Pleural Pneumonia recover from their loss. Ms Kristafor said this at Chief Nyawa's Guta Mwenzebbwe Lwiindi ceremony which was held on Saturday.

She said the Government was committed to reviewing the cattle restocking programme to continue assisting the farmers that lost animals to carry on with their agriculture. Ms Kristafor said she was glad that in Chief Nyawa's area, the cattle population had gone up to 29,000 due to the Government cattle restocking programme.

She said the Government would continue to assist farmers under the Farmer Input Support Programme. She said in Southern Province seed and fertiliser inputs for the next farming season of 2010/2011 had arrived. Ms Kristafor commended the people of Chief Nyawa for their good maize yields and encouraged them to work harder next farming season.

She said the Government, through the Food Reserve Agency (FRA), would buy all their maize. Ms Kristafor cautioned the farmers against selling their maize to briefcase business executives. "You need to sell your maize at the Government gazetted price and also reserve some for your home consumption," she said.

Chief Nyawa's ngambela and headman Donald Sikayasa praised the Government for assisting the people of Chief Nyawa with cattle restocking which had yielded 29,000 cattle. "At the moment, our animals are still dying and, therefore, we appeal to the Government to continue assisting us," he said.

He, however, bemoaned the lack of a booster to ease communication. Mr Sikayasa called for more maize depots as some people walked more than 15 kilometres to reach the nearest depots. And Ms Kristafor also said the Government is concerned about the continued encroachment on the Sichifulo game management area.

She said the Government had prohibited settlements in game management areas as they only promoted poaching. "It is illegal to have settlements in a game management area and I appeal to the squatters to follow the law. The law must be followed," she said. She urged the squatters to liaise with the chief and headmen so that they could be allocated alternative land.

She urged Chief Nyawa and the headmen to take stock of their subjects and find out who the illegal squatters were and where they had come from.