18 Mar 2013

Cattle farming in Ngamiland District has not been fully exploited because of the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreaks, says President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama.

Speaking during the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) 51st national council on March 15, he said last year’s drought made the situation worse. 

He expressed concern about the welfare of people in the district and gave the Minister of Agriculture the mandate to continue to search for alternative markets to sell cattle and beef from Ngamiland. He noted that since the Bobirwa region was similarly affected, it should also be included in the solutions that the government is seeking.

President Khama stressed that the government continues to search for markets for cattle in FMD prone areas of Bobirwa/Mmadinare and Ngamiland.  He noted that an agreement has been concluded with South Africa to buy deboned beef from the Bobirwa/Mmadinare area. The Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), he said, will be accepting and slaughtering cattle from Zone 7 at intervals on a regular basis.

President Khama also said that negotiations had been finalised with the Cold Storage Company of Zimbabwe.  The first consignment of live cattle from Ngamiland to Zimbabwe started in mid-March.  The agreement, he explained, was to export 800 cattle per week initially and to increase the numbers as time goes on. President Khama also pointed out that the government would continue to seek other markets for cattle in order to keep the livestock sector vibrant, as it supports most of the local people particularly those in rural areas.

President Khama further noted that the government had approved an integrated farming strategy.  He explained that integrated farming entails practising the various agricultural enterprises which are compatible and support each other in an enclosed land. 

He noted that the advantages of integrated farming was that it enabled the farmer to concentrate production efforts on a single piece of land, thus saving the farmer labour and costs in developing more than one piece of land.

Integrated farming also creats an opportunity to improve overall land productivity and to use waste material of one component to improve other components.

He also stated that it facilitates production of a variety of food and sources of nutrition for the households while at the same time providing flow of income to the farmer around the year.  ENDS