Arda rescues livestock producers

The Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA) has come to the rescue of cattle producers in Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South provinces who are facing challenges with pastures, by drilling boreholes and providing them with hay.

Speaking during a tour of ARDA Sedgwick Estate in Tsholotsho on Saturday, ARDA chairman Mr Basil Nyabadza said the shortage of pastures in Matabeleland North had become a serious threat to livestock.

“Poor pastures have significantly constrained livestock production and negatively impacted livelihoods, particularly in the southern region of the country,” he said.

“We have a crisis and the best that we can do to mitigate this issue is to urgently harvest grass in Mashonaland and Manicaland provinces and transport it here to save our national herd from drought.

“We will have to transport the grass by rail to make it cheaper for farmers. We want to proffer this solution to our principles.” Mr Nyabadza said apart from challenges with pastures, the Matabeleland provinces had inadequate water for livestock and was relying on distant water sources.

“We have set to drill boreholes to overcome the issue of shortage of water,” he said. “All water sources have dried up and cattle are having muddy-water which resulted in outbreak of diseases.”

Mr Nyabadza said the preservation of the national herd was critical for the nation, especially in view of the revival of the Cold Storage Company                                    (CSC).

“We are pleased that the Government has identified an investor for CSC, there is now needed for stock throughout and that’s what we have here,” he said. “If we don’t maintain our national herd, the revival of CSC might not materialise.”

Mr Nyabadza said as ARDA, they were committed to fulfilling their mandate of transforming the economy and the lives of people in the rural areas through various agricultural activities, including cattle ranching.

“As we transform our economy, livestock is critical to rural areas as it underpins development that His Excellency talks continuously about,” he said.

ARDA’s partner at Sedgwick Estate Mr Vengai Runyowa said the problem of water and pastures was now a serious threat to their livestock following this year’s below normal rainfall.

“Our situation this year is very different in Matabeleland from all the other years,” he said.

“From 2015 our rainfall patterns was averaging 415 millimetres per annum, but this year it has been difficult, we only receive about 84mm to 86mm of rainfall, which is a severe drought.”

Mr Honest Moyo, a farmer in Matobo said: “If we are battling with grazing land and water in April, how are we going to survive up to the next season. We are grateful to ARDA for its intervention.”