Zim’s national herd remains stagnant
Tabitha Mutenga features Editor
Financial Gazette
12/6/2019
COMMERCIAL and A2 livestock producers are failing to grow their cattle herds due to disease outbreaks and the lack of medium to long term financing, a study commissioned by The Financial Gazette and the Zimbabwe Agricultural Society has revealed.
The report, compiled by the Africa Economic Development Strategies Africa on the state of the agriculture sector in Zimbabwe, noted that the main challenge aced by farmers across all livestock species was the high cost of production that adversely effects on farm liability and competitiveness locally and in the region.
“Challenges faced in the sector due to the transformation were identified as disease outbreak, lack of access to affordable funding, expensive inputs when compared to the region and depressed cereal production.
“Evidence from research shows that cattle production remained flat at around five million herd since 2001, this could be partly attributed to the outbreaks of foot and mouth disease and other diseases that were identified as a serious threat to the complete recovery of the cattle herd,” the study said.
Research shows that 69 percent of the cattle in Zimbabwe are owned by small scale rural farmers, 11 percent by Al farmers, A2 and large scale commercial farmers own a combined 10 percent, old resettled farmers own six percent while small scale commercial farmers own four percent.
The study, which also aims to unpack the conditions prevailing in the agriculture sector so as to develop ear, practical responses and proposals for implementation at government and private sector levels, revealed at on one hand, livestock herd sizes nationally declined by about 20 percent for beef, over 83 percent for dry, and 26 and 25 percent for pigs and small ruminants, respectively.
While the other livestock species did not recover, the dairy sector is noted to have defied the declining trends due to the presence of an integrated value chain.
Although the current output of 75,4 million litres is still below the annual national demand of 120 million litres, the country has progressively reduced milk units from South Africa by about 45 percent.
“From the study, it was crystal clear that the average slaughter rate was around five percent of total head. The low slaughter rate was largely contributed by the fact that small scale farmers who controlled 69 percent of the total head keeps cattle as a store of wealth and as a sign of Wealth and hence sees slaughtering as wastage read part the Agriculture Sector Survey.
The report said it was crucial for the country to create strong value chains linkages between, farmers the Cold Storage Company, meat processors and abattoirs in order to improve the slaughter rate from the current five percent.