03 Mar 2013

 

The cattle restocking exercise in the Robelela area is scheduled to take place between April and May this year.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Robelela, the Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi said 2  000 cattle would be given to farmers in the area who had their livestock culled due to the outbreak of the Foot and Mouth Disease in Zone Seven area.

He told the meeting that Robelela Farmers Committee had requested that farmers in the area should not be given cattle from the Bobirwa area. This, they had argued, was because the animals might easily find their way back to their places of original - an explanation government had bought into.

 The area will now be restocked with livestock from the Zone Six area. Mr Molebatsi urged cattle farmers to prepare themselves for the restocking activity. 

For his part, the Village Development Committee Chairperson, Mr George Morupisi commended government for the exercise .

He said the re-stocking exercise had been scheduled for the right time when grazing land would have recuperated from the recent drought. He said currently the area was experiencing good rains and there was enough pasture for the cattle. 

 He however expressed concern that the drift fence along the Botswana-Zimbabwe border that prevented cattle from straying into the neighbouring country was in a poor state and needed maintenance.

Mr Morupisi also noted that farmers were facing a challenge of elephants and kudus that destroyed their field crops. He called for assistance to curb the problem explaining that at the end of every ploughing season people had little or nothing to reap from their fields.

In response, Mr Molebatsi who is also MP for Tswapong South explained that the issue of wild animals destroying fields would be looked into by government to find ways to mitigate the problem. ENDS