21 Aug 2017

Ngamiland community has been advised to take advantage of the Ngamiland Sustainable Land Management (SLM) project in order to improve beef production and benefit from the livelihood support systems in line with clear principles of range management.

The five-year project is funded and implemented by UNDP in collaboration with some government departments and the community.

It is aimed to address land degradation challenges in Ngamiland and it is believed that mainstreaming of sustainable land management practices into rangelands and other productive landscapes would promote recovery of degraded lands.

The coordinator of the project, Mr Innocent Magole advised the communities during a multi-stakeholder dialogue session organised by UNDP under the theme; Living with Nature; Finding Opportunities Amidst Land Management and Beef Production and Market Challenges for Sustainable Environment.

He said the programme was coming to an end in 2019 and the expectation was to see many challenges faced by the district being addressed accordingly and the livelihoods being improved.

One of the long term solutions proposed by the project is to mainstream SLM principles into the livestock production sector specifically in areas where rangeland degradation is most intense.

He said the project aimed to identify opportunities that farmers could tap into to improve beef production and to manage land range effectively.

Mr Magole stated that the district rangeland supported a large number of livestock and that most livestock rearing took place under communal and commercial systems.

In addition, he said the majority of the livestock in the district was found in communal areas, but expressed disappointment that cattle roamed without proper care.

Further, he observed that statistics had indicate that between 400 and 500 road accidents that happen annually across the country are mainly caused by stray animals.

The district leading in accidents, he said, was Central, while Ngamiland comes third, noting that such was a sign that farmers are neither kraalling nor taking care of their livestock.

Mr Magole called on farmers to address the situation by adopting new livestock management systems brought along by the project.

Recently, he said UNDP took some farmers to Zimbabwe on a benchmarking mission to see how best their counterparts do as far as livestock management was concerned.

“We were impressed to learn that the Zimbabwean farmers were practicing a holistic management system and hired eco-rangers (herd boys) who were well paid,” he added.

He said the holistic management system encouraged farmers to supervise their livestock 24/7, ‘thus knowing where your cattle are every day’.

He also noted that through the project, they were willing to train some locals as eco-rangers with an aim to promote proper livestock management practices.

One of the panelists, Prof. Toyin Kolawole also noted that the way cattle were managed in Ngamiland, especially in communal areas, left a lot to be desired.

The rural development expert from Okavango Research Institute, who originates from Nigeria said he was shocked to see cattle all over the area, noting that in his country it was a taboo to leave animals like that.

“If you leave your cattle to roam around they get lost, but I have realised that here in Botswana you have two strategies to manage your cattle; through boreholes and calves.

In Nigeria we build kraals where we keep our cattle and in the morning we release them for grazing and in the evening we bring them back,” he added.

Prof. Kolawole advised farmers to change their mindset and come up with new ways to manage their livestock so that they could derive benefits from them. ENDS