27 Aug 2017

Strategy officer for Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) Mr Brian Dioka has pleaded with Kweneng farmers to have confidence in the commission and sell their cattle in large numbers.

Speaking at a general meeting of the Kweneng Beef Farmers in Molepolole recently, Mr Dioka noted that it was public knowledge that BMC was under financial stress, but would not deviate from carrying out the duty of producing meat for export.

He noted that the Lobatse, Francistown and Maun abattoirs had the capacity to slaughter 150 000 cattle per annum, but had never reached that target because of significant drop of numbers of cattle for slaughter.

 “We are unable to slaughter the number of cattle that we have scheduled because of numerous reasons such as farmers not selling their cattle to us opting to sell to commercial slaughtering facilities.

He urged farmers to consider selling cattle to BMC for them to be able to retail their cattle at their convenience cheaply while assuring them that issues of late payments would be solved in due course.

Mr Dioka said measures had been put in place to address the matter and was certain that with the cooperation from farmers the financial problems that they were currently facing would be defeated.

They were also advised to keep records of their cattle to enable the veterinary officers to know which cattle had been vaccinated, when and for what disease.

For his part, Kweneng Beef Farmers Association chairperson, Mr Geoffrey Matsila expressed disappointment about farmers’ continual snubbing of meetings, noting that it was the second gathering where farmers showed up in small numbers despite being informed well in time .

“Such occasions are made for us as farmers to be under one roof to share experiences and map a way forward with one voice.

If we do not attend these meetings it becomes very difficult for us to present our issues to relevant stakeholders when we need their assistance,” he said. ENDS