06 Jun 2023

Farmers must raise the quality and quantity of small stock production in anticipation of the high demand that will come with the commissioning of the Tsabong Multispecies Abattoir. 

The P162 million facility, whose construction is nearing completion, is expected to start operating in September.

Speaking during a tour of the abattoir and Lobu Farm recently, Ministry of Agriculture’s Tsabong Multispecies Abattoir project engineer, Mr Ofentse Kgaogano, said the facility has capacity to slaughter cattle, small stock and game. It has been designed to slaughter 200-300 small stock and 50-60 cattle per day. In light of the expected high demand for small stock, Mr Kgaogano encouraged farmers to produce more in order to sustain the facility.

“Already, some aspects of the plant are ready for use, but we are waiting to commission it as a whole,” he said. “We need to double our effort for this abattoir to function at full capacity, because we expect to slaughter about 13 000 cattle, and 65 000 small stock per annum, but the current numbers are extremely low.”

The Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Entrepreneurship, Mr Mbakiso Morapedi, said his ministry had started to engage with the community and various stakeholders on how best to make the abattoir profitable and expand Botswana’s export base.

“The small stock production numbers are still low and so there will be a lot of engagement on how we get our production up so that we can meet the targets,” Mr Morapedi said. “More importantly, we want the community to be the drivers of this change.”

He stated that government has introduced initiatives to build market access for small stock farmers such as establishment of the Tsabong multi-species abattoir that will slaughter, process and package goat and sheep products, while other interventions included establishment of livestock marketing centres.

Mr Morapedi said the abattoir will be a marked improvement from the current situation faced by small stock producers that includes unorganised and undependable domestic markets, as well as underdeveloped marketing infrastructure and facilities.

Morapedi said small stock farmers would need to improve on their management practices, which often result in high mortalities, and low kidding and off-take rates.

Chief Animal Scientist in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Tshwaragano Kopano, also underscored the need to increase small stock numbers in order to sustain the envisaged market. He said according 2015 statistics, 77 000 households reared goats while 17 000 reared sheep. Most of them were in the communal areas.

He highlighted that nationally, the 2015 statistical data reflected that there were 1.2 million goats and 270 000 sheep. The distribution of sheep and goats in Botswana varied across the districts; Central region carried 29.5 percent of the entire population, Gaborone region carried 25.2 percent, Francistown region recorded 18.2 percent, Southern region had 14.3 percent, Western region carried 7.6 percent while Maun region stood at 5.2 percent.

The two-day stakeholder engagement, which was organised by Ministry of Entrepreneurship, was attended by the senior management from Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), Local Enterprise Authority (LEA), Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA), Tsabong District Council, farmers’ associations and local authorities. Ends