25 Sep 2022

As Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) hit some villages in zone 6b for the second time since 2011, farmers are waiting with bated breath to find out the fate of their livestock.

Even though many are still taking care and looking after their livestock, the Department of Veterinary Services has already informed them that the only way to curb the disease from spreading throughout the country is to depopulate.

However, this seems to not be the preferred decision by some farmers in Senyawe as they believe it puts them in a rather unfavorable position.

One of the farmers, Ms Monica Chalashika is keeping her finger crossed that her 63 cows and about 40 goats will be spared from the infamous exercise.

The 63-year-old farmer’s only solace lies on the fact that so far none of her animals have been found to have the disease.

She explained to BOPA that losing her livestock would be the most devastating thing especially after working so hard to recover from the last FMD depopulation.

“I think the government should cordon off our zone from the rest of the country, not kill our livestock and we live with FMD amongst ourselves,” she added.

Well aware that this might not solve the issue, she said FMD would always be a crisis as it had a tendency to recur every five to ten years.

With despair, she believes the idea to depopulate is but a temporary solution as the same disease will break-out in the not so distant future if previous trends are anything to go by.

In 2011, she lost 32 head of cattle to FMD and the thought of losing the current head gives her sleepless nights.

“My family and I were given about 30 calves and lost almost half of them as some went astray while others died,” she added.

Keeping cattle, she relayed was the mainstay for her family.

Thanks to proceeds accrued from cattle rearing, Ms Chalashika has managed to send all her five children to school and pay medical bills for her husband who has not been well lately.

The village Chief, Kgosi Grace Butale however holds a different view.

The killing of the livestock to contain the disease remains the only viable solution to get rid of the disease.

She said though it was plausible for the people to be against the idea to depopulate as they perceived it as a draw back to the farming vocation.

She said it was unrealistic for some farmers to think they could  still eke out a living from their livestock even if the zone was cut off from the rest of the country.

This, she stated was worsened by the little grazing land within zone 6b.

“This issue is bigger than us, it includes the country’s economy which will gradually deteriorate with the low exports of beef that will follow,” she added.

She thus pleaded with the government to try and augment grazing pastures in villages that make up zone 6b to curb incidents whereby livestock from Botswana side was driven into the Zimbabwean side where grazing pasture abound.

As long as Botswana cattle cross over into the Zimbabwean side and find their way back in to the country, the fight against FMD will remain a wild goose chase.

It is her wish also that the government could consider increasing the compensation money, saying the current P2 480 was meager and could not assist the farmers to get back on their feet.

“The P2 480 for one cow is too little. It is important also that financial education and counseling of the affected farmers should be conducted before the depopulation exercise,” she advised.

Another Butale farmer whose cattle have been confirmed to have FMD, Ms Betty Mojeremane said the news had been devastating especially for a greenhorn farmer like herself.

“I have just completed my last installment payment of the loan I secured to buy cattle about a month ago and now this!”.

Prospects of recovery would not be a walk in the park, she said.

To her, exterminating affected animals is not the panacea.

There is an urgent need to invest in terms of coming up with a cure for the disease, she opined. ENDS