The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure Farming Reporter
SMALLHOLDER farmers in communal parts of Manicaland have suffered unmitigated livestock fatalities that have dealt a blow on their future livelihoods and capacity to escape from chronic poverty as many families are without dependable draught power ahead of the rainy season.
Livestock is susceptible to extreme weather conditions due to changes in the hydrological cycle, temperature balance and rainfall patterns that have negative impact on growth rate, animal nutrition, productivity and reproduction.
While communal livestock production offers the country opportunity for accelerated economic growth, climate change has induced a host of frictional factors such as high mortality, low productivity, poor animal nutrition and disease control.
Lack of technical information has also exposed small-scale farmers to additional challenges like poor market access and prices.
Climate change has a two-tier effect on livestock production system — it directly compromise the health, reproduction, nutrition of animals, which culminates in poor performance, inferior product quality, outbreak of novel diseases and indirectly affect change in soil fertility, decrease in vegetation, land degradation, desertification and decrease in production of feed stuffs.
Acting head of the Livestock Department in Manicaland, Mr Joshua Zvoutete, on Wednesday told The Manica Post that the situation in Buhera, Chipinge, Chimanimani and Mutare districts where farmers’ livelihoods depend on rain-fed agriculture was disastrous.
These districts last season suffered extreme rainfall fluctuations, varying between 150-450mm and were also plagued by veld fires, leading to severe water and grazing shortages that worsened an already desperate situation, leading to unmitigated livestock deaths.
The rainy season now starts late and ends prematurely. This means longer dry periods characterised by shortage of water to drink and also pastures for grazing — which are critical for viable livestock production as they enhance nutrition, condition and weight of animals.
Such losses are impossible to recover, meaning they accelerate smallholder farmers who are marginalised from new research, innovations and technologies in livestock production and management that proffer solutions to such climatic fluctuations and extremism into chronic poverty.
“The situation is terrible on the ground. The livestock condition is now very poor especially in the southern parts of Buhera and Mutare, along Sabi Valley in Chipinge and western parts of Chinaminani,” said Mr Zvoutete.
An animal census of 2012 revealed that Manicaland had an estimated 586 619 cattle, 100 462 sheep, 634 742 goats and 41 000 pigs, a population that has of late drastically dwindled as the province recorded severe climate change induced mortalities.
“We are still verifying statics from the dip tanks in collaboration with the Department of Veterinary Services, but the truth is that cattle are dying.
The condition of animals is unpleasant. Climate change is a reality and urgent interventions are required to prevent a collapse of the sector,” added Mr Zvoutete.
More than 1 600 cattle died in Chipinge early this year and the surviving 32 000’s body condition has deteriorated as farmers struggle to supplement their feed.
Mr Arnold Manyore, of Chirozva, in Buhera complained about the rising cattle fatalities and urged Government to drill more boreholes and repair broken down ones. Water constraints are prevalent during the dry season and animals have to travel long distances daily to access the precious liquid.
Water points in communal areas are also limited and swarmed by large numbers of animals and people, culminating in high chances of depletion, spread of diseases and land degradation.
“It is very hot here and animals are travelling very long distances to the next water point. We are sharing water with animals at the few available water points and human life takes precedence which means most of these livestock deaths are a result of dehydration and are occurring at the water points,” said Mr Manyore.
Mr Munyati Charuma, of Chipinge, said livestock in the region was starving to death, while a few can afford supplementary feeds.
“It is a serious problem, grazing pastures have been burnt and we are clueless about where to get water. It is painful to see your cattle dying and doing nothing about it. Cattle are dying at proportional rates. It is a tragedy as several thousands of cattle have been lost due to water, animal feed and disease problems. Our wealth has been eroded, condemning us into chronic poverty,” said Mr Charuma.
Veld fires have worsened shortage of grazing pastures, with statistics showing that more than 100 000 hectares of forests have been destroyed.
Dr Obert Tada of Chinhoyi University of Science and Technology, said lack of knowledge was making it impossible to combat effects of climate change in livestock producing communal areas.
“It is a reality that climate change now has a grave effect on livestock production in the country, coming as an additional factor affecting a sector already facing a host of challenges. Climate change has severe impacts on communal livestock production as it distorts feed supply, thermoregulatory mechanism resulting in thermal stress, new diseases due to change in epidemiology of diseases and causing many other indirect impacts.
“There is need for research to help farmers exploit the full potential of their animals. Climate change demands a balanced type of animal that thrives in stressful environment and at the moment, the potential has been severely compromised by these vagaries of weather,” said Dr Tada.
He added that communal livestock production systems need to adjust and adopt possible strategies that reduce vulnerabilities, adding that research and innovations should revolve around indigenous breed and livestock nutrition.
“It leads to low productivity and less resistance to stress. Research should be community based so that you can find the best genotypes or straits that adapt well and produce like indigenous breeds.
Farmers can improve the nutritional component of their animals by augmenting feed shortages through urea treatment of stover, sodium hydroxyl treatment of stover, silage (forage, sorghum, grass, legumes) ration formulation and development of fodder banks,” said Dr Tada.
Livestock and Pastures Research specialist in the Agriculture Ministry, Dr Joe Sikhosana, said there were knowledge gaps on how climate change affects livestock production and efforts to revolutionise communal livestock production systems to contribute to a climate-smart agriculture have been sluggish.
“Livestock is sensitive to the vagaries of weather and simultaneous, a contributor to the phenomenon.
Climate change is real and we need to devise apt adaptive and mitigation options. Rural communities are more vulnerable because the knowledge on the relationship between climate change effects and animal health is lacking.
“Weather variations bring shocks that rural farmers are not prepared to deal with. The natural feed is not well managed and reduced land size and wild fires compound the problem. We need breeds that match these environments,” said Dr Sikhosana.
In 2008, the Food and Agriculture Organisation noted, among the direct effects of climate change, high temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns, translating in an increased spread of existing vector-borne diseases and macro parasites of animals as well as the emergence and spread of new diseases.
The increased ambient temperature and concurrent changes in heat exchanges causes heat stress which influences growth, reproduction performance, milk production, wool production, animal health, condition and welfare.
Heat stress reduces animal feed intake, resulting in poor growth. Indigenous cattle have high heat tolerance.
