14 May 2013

Government has decided to depopulate the 30 000 small stock that was affected by Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Zone 6, Minister of Agriculture, Mr Christiaan De Graaff has announced.

Addressing a stakeholders’ meeting in Francistown on May 13, the minister said the depopulation exercise, planned to start immediately, was not expected to take more than a month.

Subsequent to removal of the animals, he said, the Department of Veterinary Services shall observe a three months mandatory period to verify that the disease had been eradicated. Mr De Graaf said, unlike cattle, the depopulated small stock would be entirely compensated in kind.

He explained that this unusual persistence of disease in the small stock population, despite vaccination, was not only a serious threat to the disease spreading, but would also delay restocking in the zone.

In addition, he noted that FMD had also been detected in wildlife and since the affected game species were known to be transient carriers, intensive surveillance would be carried out to ensure the infection had been cleared from game species.

The minister said surveillance showed that the disease was restricted to the eastern part of the zone namely, Matshelagabedi, Matsiloje, Matopi, Patayamatebele and Ditladi. He appealed to the community to cooperate with the Ministry of Agriculture staff and not to move animals out of the affected areas as this would spread the disease in the entire zone.

“We have learnt from our previous experiences where farmers were running away from the outbreak area and by doing so spreading the disease, which ultimately resulted in the expansion of the infected zone to the current boundaries,” said Mr De Graaff.

He said the purchasing of cattle for restocking in Zone 7 and Bobirwa areas was about to start and upon completion of the exercise, teams would move to Zone 6 to start the same programme if the animal health situation would be favourable.

Tati East MP, Mr Samson Guma bemoaned the bad news, saying it was regrettable that at a time when farmers were expecting the restocking exercise to kick off, they were instead being told that their small stock would be killed. He called on the ministry to declare Zone 6 and Ngami areas disaster areas to enable farmers to benefit from the national disaster fund.

Matsiloje Farmers’ Association chairperson, Mr Simon Lephalo said the FMD outbreak in Zone 6 was not properly handled because of inadequate information from the officials. Mr Tsietso Ikaneng of Tati Siding suggested that Zone 6 should be designated for arable farming only because its proximity to Zimbabwe put it at risk of cattle diseases.

Cllr Flora Mpetsane of Matsiloje called on the government to consider giving the farmers a certain percentage in addition to the compensation of the cattle because had it not been for the delay in restocking, the cattle could have multiplied. 

For her part, Cllr Joyce Mahube of Ramokgwebana lamented that the killing of small stock would impact negatively on the youth who benefited from government schemes as they would still be expected to service their loans even when the small stock was killed.

A beneficiary of CEDA, Mr Moss Sesupeng lamented that although thousands of his cattle were killed, CEDA still expected him to pay his instalment and interest every month.

In response, Mr De Graaff promised to take the issue of young farmers and that of Mr Sesupeng to cabinet to seek the way forward. BOPA