27 Feb 2013

Maun East MP, Mr Frank Ramsden has urged the Ministry of Agriculture to explain why it continued to use conventional Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccines when a purified vaccine was being used in other areas.

Contributing to the debate on the agriculture ministry budget proposals, he said the reasons given that the vaccine could not be used as there was regular contact between cattle and buffaloes were not convincing.

 He said neighbouring countries such as Namibia and Zimbabwe were using the vaccine, saying farmers in his constituency should be allowed to use it.

 The MP said there was an agenda to ensure that cattle were decimated by FMD and called on the ministry to come clean on the issue. The MP said since the outbreak of FMD in October 2007, there had been yearly outbreaks which the ministry failed to control. He wanted the Minister of Agriculture to identify the people who were responsible for this state of affairs.

 The MP for Molepolole South, Mr Daniel Kwelagobe asked about guidelines in the ISPAAD programme which made it difficult for farmers to be productive. He also noted that the price for ploughing was set five years ago and had never been reviewed.

 However, he raised concern about the efficiency of the ministry when responding to FMD in Ngamiland and Okavango.

 Mr Kwelagobe noted that FMD had been in the country for a long time. “During the time when the country was still underdeveloped, we did not have these frequent outbreaks of the disease. Somewhere in the ministry’s management, somebody is sleeping on the job,” he said.

 The Molepolole South MP further observed that in the past the disease was controllable even without fences and wondered why the ministry was failing now when the country’s infrastructure has advanced.

 For his part, the MP for Okavango, Mr Bagalatia Arone informed Parliament that farmers in his constituency were convinced that the ministry was against cattle farming in the area. He said protection fences were non-existent in the area and veterinary camps had been abandoned which reinforced suspicions by farmers.

Mr Arone said most of the answers given by the ministry on the situation did not reflect the situation on the ground. He said the veterinary department in Gumare did not have transport to police and maintain the fence.

 He also decried the fact that crop production in the Okavango area was not being given enough support and urged the ministry to do more.

 The MP for Selebi Phikwe West, Mr Gilson Saleshando observed that prices for cattle in FMD infected areas were too low and would impoverish farmers.

 He also said the resistance by the ministry to use the purified vaccine gave credence to suspicions that the ministry wanted the Ngamiland and Okavango areas to be turned into game ranches. ENDS