25 Nov 2013

Parliament has adopted a motion requesting government to extend a short term livestock feeds loan as a matter of urgency and allow the use of idle quarantines by local communities to avoid possible extinction of livestock due to harsh and prolonged drought period.

Moving his motion, Member of Parliament for Boteti North, Mr Slumber Tsogwane said harsh and persistent drought had taken its toll and continued to impoverish Batswana as livestock mortality was high, hence the need to finance farmers to purchase livestock feeds during drought periods.

He said even though there was no official drought related livestock mortality report from the Ministry of Agriculture, there was clear evidence from eye witness account that a lot of cattle died from drought, some were lean and would soon perish. Without any intervention measure, he said, there was potential livestock extinction in many parts of the country.

“Farmers in Boteti could not avoid the ravage of their cattle by drought and farmers in the 4A area lost their European Union market due to the poor state of the Makgadikgadi Park’s game fence and some could not sell most of their animal due to the problem of ineffective bolus management system,” said Mr Tsogwane.

The legislator said even though government assisted farmers with subsidised cattle feed, many Livestock Advisory Centres (LACs) failed to keep adequate stock, hence government’s restocking scheme could not buy all animals due to their poor condition.

Mr Tsogwane explained that the current drought situation was disabling farmers to service their CEDA and NDB agricultural loans through the sale of livestock. The motion also, he said, sought to avoid possible extinction of livestock and aggravated poverty conditions, hence the need for government to move swiftly to help farmers protect their livestock from the hardship of drought and establish short term livestock feeds loan.

The motion further sought government to allow farmers in areas where there is idle land to graze their livestock particularly in idle quarantines. Debating the motion, parliamentarians concurred that the motion was long overdue.

The MP for South East North, Mr Olebile Gaborone who also supported the motion called for the amendment, saying it should also include drilling of boreholes and building of dams to water livestock.

He said the BMC should also seek alternative markets for farmers since the majority of farmers do not meet strict EU requirements, a situation which was likely to result in overstocking. MP for Kweneng East, Mr Moeng Pheto said stock feeds should be availed at LACs as many had run out of stock, despite the impact of drought felt country wide. ENDS