THE government has partnered Agribank in restocking the national herd whose numbers have since gone down to 5,3 million cattle, Deputy Agriculture (Livestock) minister Paddy Zhanda has said.
VENERANDA LANGA,SENIOR PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER
Zhanda made the remarks in Parliament on Wednesday after Zanu PF Murehwa North MP Tendayi Makunde demanded to know the government’s roll out programme to improve the national herd.
“The government is working on a programme to improve the national herd in terms of the qualitative outcomes yield per factor because some of the cattle herds, particularly in the communal lands, are really getting smaller and smaller,” Zhanda said.
“I must mention that the national herd used to stand at about six million cattle and we have approximately 5 300 000 cattle.”
Zhanda said the re-breeding programme was being funded by Agribank.
“We used to have a cattle finance scheme, particularly with the commercial sector to finance farmers. It was a concessionary finance scheme run by the Cold Storage Commission (CSC),” he said.
The deputy minister bemoaned the $4 million allocated for livestock farming under the 2014 national budget saying the amount was inadequate.
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“Even if we have that kind of money, there is a shortage of breeding stock locally. We are looking at how best we can use some of the CSC ranches to embark on a massive cattle breeding system so that we can pass those animals to communal farmers,” he said.
Zhanda said there was also a worrying trend where only crop farming was being financed at the expense of livestock farming.
“People who are growing crops like maize and soya beans have been financed in the budget, but livestock farming has not been provided for,” he said.
He said there was need to embark on a programme to commercialise cattle as they were being kept in most communal lands as a way of wealth without looking at their commercial value.
“We want our people to sell at least two or three animals every year so that they can deal with their problems, particularly issues of school fees, fertiliser and so on. Therefore, we want to commercialise the issue of cattle,” Zhanda said.
