The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure
Senior Reporter
LIVESTOCK plays a key role among other sectors of the economy, hence the strategic move by the Second Republic to devise measures that mitigate against the challenges stifling livestock production, productivity and profitability.
The livestock sector covers numerous species of animals, which include beef and dairy cattle, goats, sheep, poultry, pigs, farmed fish, crocodiles and bees.
Livestock is an important source of nutritious food, provide critical inputs for crop production, raw materials for the agro-processing industry, income and capital wealth creation for the farmers.
The sector accounts for animal protein products like red meat, poultry meat, pork, fish and rabbit meat, eggs and milk, which is essential for national food security and nutrition.
Demand for these products is expected to rise on the back of surging population, urbanisation and income growth as the country marches towards an upper-middle income economy by 2030.
Government was concerned with the level of performance of the livestock sector and promulgated the Livestock Recovery and Growth Plan (2021-2026) to address all challenges blamed for low off-take, low fertility, high mortality and morbidity, low carcass weight, poor quality and inability to effectively compete on the export market.
The goal was to reduce livestock mortality, for more productive livestock systems that are adapted to meet the incessant drought events caused by climate change.
Climate change has brought serious challenges to the livestock sector, given surging animal disease outbreaks, frequent droughts and floods, which contributed to the decimation of the national herd.
Over the past years, successive droughts have resulted in poor nutrition, especially for grazing animals and this has led to reduced fertility, resulting in low calving rates.
The national calving rate is below 50 percent against a normal of over 60 percent.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development, Dr John Basera said high prevalence of animal diseases is the biggest constraint to livestock production and trade of livestock products.
The diseases include foot and mouth, tick-borne (theileriosis), Newcastle, lumpy skin disease, blackleg, anthrax, fowl pox, infectious bursal disease, pulp kidney, brucellosis, and mastitis.
They require constant, consistent surveillance and monitoring to ensure their satisfactory control.
Dr Basera said in 2017 alone, the country lost over 55 000 cattle due to tick-borne-related deaths.
This figure swelled to an excess of 500 000 cattle deaths by 2020.
Cattle lost in Manicaland over the last four years were valued at US$1 million.
“This prompted Government to institute measures to avert the situation and this included increasing its budget towards the fight against the January Disease,” he said.
The Second Republic came up with a National Integrated Ticks and Tick-Borne Disease Control Strategy that comprises scientifically proven approaches that apply to the local environment to avert the deaths, minimise losses and/maximise benefits.
The initiative saw the enforcement of dipping across all farming sectors, promoting adoption of plunge dipping for tick control, strengthening community participation and ownership of the tick and tick-borne disease control programmes.
It also saw the establishment and maintenance of infrastructure and equipment that include replacement of pour-on races with plunge dips, drilling of boreholes for water supply to dip tanks and rehabilitation of damaged dip tanks.
This was meant to ensure that farmers have access to the most cost-effective tick and tick-borne disease control infrastructure.
In the rainy season, all cattle in the province were dipped once a week, and in the event of an outbreak, the frequency of dipping is increased to three times in two weeks, using the 5-5-4-day dipping interval.
Manicaland have about 700 plunge dip tanks and 100 were fixed under the accelerated dip tank rehabilitation programme in 2022.
The Presidential Blitz Tick Grease programme benefited over 150 000 households in Manicaland.
The programme involves providing 1kg of tick grease per each cattle-owning household.
Upon receiving the tick grease, farmers were trained on the application and use of tick grease in between dipping sessions.
Brick upon brick, Zimbabwe is developing
The tick grease is a supplementary tick-control measure, applied to tick-feeding sites on the animal, like the inside of the ears, base of the horn, under the tail and tail brush, to improve the outcomes of the national dipping programme.
The programme enhanced the national effort against ticks and tick-borne diseases, which culminated in a 47 percent reduction of cattle mortality due to the January Disease in 2021, and a 39 percent decline in cattle mortalities in 2022.
For the first quarter of 2023, the tick control programme was on track, and the results are impressive.
Dr Basera said Government has also contracted a local manufacturer to produce dip chemical for the national dipping programme.
“Another contractor was engaged to supply the imported active ingredients for the dip chemical manufacture. This local manufacture model has potential to produce cheaper dip chemicals, at 42 percent less the current costs.
“The arrangement is improving the capacity utilisation of our local manufacturing industry, creating employment, and opening opportunities for regional exports in the long run.
“Government is currently running field trials of the locally produced BOLVAC vaccines, which can protect animals against the disease. The field trials being carried out in Makoni District in Manicaland will inform on the up-scaling and roll-out of the vaccines countrywide,” said Dr Basera.
Recent data indicate that raw milk production has increased from 79.6 million litres in 2021 to 91.6 million litres in 2022 – a rise of 14.3 percent.
This has seen imports of milk powder declining by 17 percent, that is from 8.9 million kg to 7.4 million kg.
Manicaland is one of the country’s bastions of milk production, and a number interventions have been made Government, the private sector, and development partners.
Through the initiative of Transforming Zimbabwe’s Dairy Value Chain for the Future, 200 in-calf heifers were imported from South Africa in February 2020 to improve the genetic base of local dairy cattle.
Of these, 99 were distributed to Manicaland – Tsonzo Milking Centre (23), Africa University (15), Rusitu (50) and Jourbet Farm, Chipinge (10).
Milk production in three Chipinge milk collection centres now stands at least 35 000 litres per month, with an average of milk delivered by each farmer increasing from 3 317 to 4 700 litres.
Dairy producers are also supported under the Command Silage Programme facilitated by the AFC and CBZ banks.
Similarly, the Presidential Silage Programme supports more than 1 500 small-holder dairy farmers with a standard input package comprising maize seed, basal fertiliser, and top-dressing fertiliser for one hectare of silage.
Under the first phase of the Presidential Goat and Poultry Schemes, Manicaland got 32 000 chicks and 93 165 goats, coupled with requisite technical skills in animal health, feeding and management to make them a resounding success.
