Cde Paddy Zhanda
From George Maponga in Chiredzi
The government has revived the Cattle Finance Scheme that will see resettled indigenous commercial cattle farmers countrywide receiving 500 hybrid heifers yearly as part of efforts to improve the quality of the beef herd.
The scheme will be run by the Cold Storage Company in partnership with private business.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development (responsible for Cropping) Cde Paddy Zhanda, yesterday said that the government wanted to improve the quality of the local herd to make Zimbabwean beef attractive on the export market.
He said Zimbabwe had over 5.3 million cattle, but the thrust should not be on further improving the numbers , but bettering the genetics of the herd and boosting the calving rate that stood at 48 percent.
Cde Zhanda was speaking during the handover of 100 heifers to indigenous cattle farmers sourced through a commercial joint venture between Lowveld sugar cane producer Tongaat Hulett and CSC.
The heifers were given to beneficiaries of the land reform programme mainly from Mwenezi. Tongaat Hulett will be supplying CSC with hybrid cattle for on-lending to indigenous commercial farmers as part of a drive to improve the quality of Zimbabwean beef.
Cde Zhanda said the government would continue assisting local cattle farmers to improve the quality of their cattle.
“’Our emphasis is really on improving the genetics of our cattle as a way of economically empowering our people and today we’ve given 100 hybrid cattle to farmers mainly in Mwenezi District, but we’re also expanding this programme to cover all parts of the country because we’re not really concerned about the numbers of the cattle that our farmers have, but the quality so that where you need 10 beasts to produce one tonne of beef you can just slaughter one beast,”’ he said.