ZIMBABWE’S national cattle herd has reached 5,7 million, a 2% increase from the previous year, according to updates presented in Parliament last week.
The country targets a national herd of 12 million cattle by 2034, supported by expanded disease control measures and improved access to livestock vaccines.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development minister Anxious Masuka told Parliament last week that efforts to safeguard livestock from tick-borne diseases are bearing fruit.
“Contrary to popular belief, our national herd is actually growing,” he said.
“We have ensured that vaccines are available, especially in high-risk areas, to protect cattle and secure livestock production.”
The El Niño-induced drought caused a loss of 9 941 cattle at the start of the 2023/24 season and 47% of the rural wards faced a grazing shortage starting July 2024.
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Zimbabwe has also lost cattle at alarming rates due to the January disease over the years.
In addition, the country continues to suffer from unpredictable climate-related challenges which affect the availability of livestock feed resources during the wet and dry seasons and consequently growth of the livestock industry.
Livestock production systems are constrained by prolonged dry seasons, poor nutrition and inadequate dry season feed, high stock feed prices, transboundary pests and diseases, erratic dipping schedules, high livestock mortalities and lack of market access.
According to the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF), 65% of the population derives its livelihood from crop farming and 40% from livestock production.
The country’s 2020-25 livestock growth plan identifies livestock diseases as one of the key intervention points requiring urgent attention to correctly position the livestock sector for meaningful contribution to the national development strategy.
Last month, the ministry launched a new digital livestock tracking system designed to modernise the country’s livestock sector and support its transformation into a US$2 billion industry.