22 May 2016

Botswana National Beef Producers Union (BNBPU) chairperson, Mr Madongo Direng, has called on the private sector to assist beef producers to supply a complete product to the abattoirs.

Speaking at the BNBPU annual national council in Gaborone on May 21, Mr Direng said beef producers should become part of the feedlotting system, instead of Botswana Meat Commission alone.

He said the idea of feedlotting had helped to ensure that a large number of cattle comply with the traceability requirements of the lucrative European Union (EU) market. 

“I encourage you producers and feedlotters’ association to do whatever you can to take over the feedlotting part of the production system from BMC,” he said.

Mr Direng also said registration of agricultural holdings also remained a concern to the union as it had impacted negatively in cattle throughput to BMC. 

He said their position as the union was that communal farmers should also benefit from the EU market by selling their cattle directly to BMC because 80 per cent of cattle population was in the communal areas and 20 per cent in commercial farmers.

Thus, he said veterinary services department should find a way to register communal grazing areas to meet the EU requirements for export.

On other issues, he said beef industry was currently besieged by numerous problems such as frequent drought, failure to meet objectives set and disease outbreaks.

He said the union was unable to set up a resourced secretariat because of lack of funds. 

Mr Direng said they had hoped that the union would benefit from cattle levy to support programmes and projects for producers, but that was not possible.  Another problem, he said was the withdrawal of farmers in Ghanzi region who withdrew from the union because the union was not led by “bona fide farmers.” ENDS