LOCAL farming company, Kadram Boer Goats, has started importing improved goat varieties as part of national efforts to increase the goat population as well as improve existing breeds.

Last week, the company took delivery of 120 Boer and Red Kalahari goats from South Africa, and a similar number is expected at the end of this month. Kadram owner, Crispen Kadiramwando, told The Financial Gazette that the firm was facilitating the importation of improved varieties of livestock for the benefit of local farmers as the country seeks to meet its meat requirements under the command livestock farming programme.
“These 120 are just the beginning. Another lot is coming at the end of the month. We are targeting the importation of 1000 goats, 1 000 sheep and 500 cattle by August this year,” Kadiramwando said.
From the first batch of 120 rams and bucks delivered last week, 90 would go to communal farmers, while 30 would go to commercial farmers. Kadiramwando said the goats would only be made available to farmers trained in Boer goat farming.
Last year Kadiramwando, who is also the president of the Goat Breeders’ Association of Zimbabwe, told The Financial Gazette that goat farmers were failing to satisfy the local goat meat market due to dwindling goat numbers. He revealed that an investment of at least $1,2 billion was required in five years to grow the goat population as well as improve the breed so that the country could export goat meat.
The association has since embarked on a drive to promote commercial goat farming and the improvement of existing breeds, starting with the training of farmers.
“The three main supermarket chains —TM, OK and Spar — require at least 1 200 goats every week, not to mention all the other abattoirs and private butcheries in the country,” Kadiramwando said, adding that the bulk of the three million goats in Zimbabwe were owned by communal farmers, who did not keep them for commercial purposes.
“Our target is for the goat industry to double in population by 2022 and for the size and the quality of the goats to improve,” Kadiramwando said.
“To meet this target, the industry needs an investment of at least $1,2 billion over the next five years which is spread into capital (goat injection through breeding stock and semen imports), infrastructure (pens, deep tanks, fencing, paddocks etc), production management (dipping, tagging, castration, de-worming etc)”.
He said he hoped this would be achieved through a multi-sectoral approach to resource mobilisation involving government, the private sector and non-governmental organisations involved in empowerment programmes for rural communities.
Kadiramwando said if the goat population could be doubled and breeds improved, there would be a jump in tonnage delivered to the market. 
He said some breeds yielded more meat than others.
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