06 May 2026

The outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Zone 11 has brought to a standstill the roll out of Phase I of Milk Valley Expansion Project in Lobatse where a consignment of heifers expected to arrive from Brazil has been temporarily halted.

The robust expansion plan at Botswana’s dairy flagship project wholly owned by Botswana Development Corporation was in progress but temporarily disrupted by the outbreak of FMD in Zone 11.

“Heifers have been bought and were already under quarantine at Brazil to prepare them to be shipped to Botswana but the process was put on hold because of cattle movement restrictions here, Milk Valley Farm interim general manager,” Mr Onkemetse Bareki, said.

He said the consignment was temporarily paused to mitigate any FMD risk that might arise in Zone 11.

Milk Valley Farm is aligned to Botswana’s economic diversification goals since it plays a significant role in reducing Botswana’s reliance on dairy imports, thereby strengthening local food security and supporting domestic dairy production.

Preparations were on course to receive the 1 000 heifers from Brazil which will be brought into the country in batches of 200, expected to be completed before the end of the year.

So far, Mr Bareki said, in anticipation of the new heifer batches, they had already started the ball rolling where they dried almost all available milk cows and had begun to cull the unproductive ones.

In addition, he said construction of two more cow houses and supporting infrastructure, as well as land development to expand fodder production to accommodate the coming cows was ongoing to cater for more milking cows in a project which was established to accommodate well over 2 000 cows, each with a daily production capacity of over 20 litres of milk.

To combat the impact of FMD scare, he said the farm was in the process of applying for compartmentalisation which is a critical FMD control strategy to better manage animal health to prevent outbreak or spread of FMD virus at the farm. The approach, he noted was essential for maintaining animal health and safety and ensure integrity of international trade.

“Now that Zone 11 has recorded FMD outbreak cases, the likelihood of completing the process is less. We can only apply for a compartment if the last FMD case was at least more than 10KM away from Milk Valley Farm. Of course we can apply but the scary part is that the disease keeps coming closer. Right now it is 22 KM away from us,” he said.

He thus expressed concern that should FMD come closer to Milk Valley, and the farm was not yet gazetted as a compartment then the farm would face serious setbacks. “We will be in trouble because we will not be able to trade,” he said.

His sentiments were echoed by Dairy Producers Association representative, Dr Wame Boitumelo who said FMD severely affected dairy production by reducing milk production, increasing veterinary costs, and disrupting trade, leading to significant economic losses. He highlighted that the local Milk Industry had not been performing well, adding that FMD outbreak was likely to worsen the situation.

He noted that the outbreak was particularly challenging to the dairy industry as farmers incurred high running costs including high feed costs on a daily basis. He said milk could not be sold due to current FMD controls. This, he noted would adversely affect dairy businesses and thus called for urgent formation of an FMD Relief Fund to assist the farmers to recover.

He reasoned that dairy production was a daily business and so if a farmer could fail to sell for a consecutive 28 days, they might likely not  recover economically afterwards or service their bank loans, emphasising that the FMD caused a significant drop in milk yield, most probably leading to permanent loss of production potential and a decrease in milk quality.

“The economic repercussions are severe, with local dairy farmers facing productivity loss and treatment costs due to the FMD outbreak,” Dr Boitumelo said. ENDS