Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau 

BEITBRIDGE’s proportional representation legislator, Cde Lisa Singo, has engaged businesses and organisations dealing with animal products to avail stock feed to the district where over 500 head of cattle have succumbed to drought since the start of the 2018-19 farming season.

In an interview yesterday, Cde Singo said the state of pastures and livestock in the district was a cause for concern.

She said the situation had been made worse by the drying up of most natural water sources.

According to the department of agriculture extension services Beitbridge has 97 810 cattle, 144 432 goats, 78 826 sheep and 35 978 donkeys.

Cde Singo said successive droughts have brought agony to farmers in the area where animal husbandry is practised and a lot of sentimental value is attached to livestock, mainly cattle.

“The state of affairs is really bad. There are growing concerns from many communal and resettled farmers over diminishing pastures and the deaths of livestock, mainly cattle,” she said.

“As one of the community leaders, I have engaged a number of organisations to avail stock feed closer to the farmers at relatively low prices and so far they have delivered 10 tonnes of hay-bales to Beitbridge West around Mazunga area.

“They have also promised to deliver more stock feed to Chaswingo in Beitbridge East in the next few days. At the same time I want to urge Government and other players in the livestock sector to urgently look into distributing more stock feed to Beitbridge.

“We are located in Agriculture Region 5 where crops don’t do well under the current rainfall patterns. Among other things our economic driver here is livestock production”.

Cde Singo said the drought situation had also affected rural women most of whom bear the social burden of feeding themselves and their families.

The parliamentarian said it was important for the Beitbridge Rural District Council and its partners to repair broken down boreholes and resuscitate some to improve access to water for both domestic use and livestock production.

It is estimated that over 15 000 households are in urgent need of food aid in rural Beitbridge while 5 500 are food insecure in the urban component.

“While Government is working on a number of strategies to mitigate the effects of drought on people and livestock. It is important that other players come in to complement such noble initiatives.

“Agriculture production is one of the important aspects of national economic building and hence we must collectively address the food and livestock situation,” said Cde Singo.

It is understood that most crops especially maize in Matabeleland region have been completely written off while livestock continue to die.

Further, in the last two decades livestock numbers in Matabeleland South have continued to decline due to drought, perennial diseases, and stock thefts among other things.

It is understood that the district received around 200 mm of rain during the last farming season against an average of between 350 to 450 mm needed for both livestock and crops to do well.

Beitbridge’s Agritex Officer Mr Masauso Mawocha said in a recent interview that some farmers had ventured into fodder production to augment food supplies for their livestock.

He said besides the drought, they had challenges in terms of lack of the dipping chemical, acaricide.

He said some of the weak cattle were vulnerable to tick borne diseases including heart water, sweating sickness and Anaplasmosis.