• Smallholder Agribusiness Promotion Programme is addressing the challenges of marketing meat and dairy products.
By KAYMA AKAKAENDELWA –
LIVESTOCK is considered as a source of income, draft power, manure fertilising field, a medium of trade for barter system and above all an important source of livelihood.
This is also premised on the basis that Zambia’s geographical and climatic conditions are favourable for livestock production, making it a lucrative enterprise.
However, there are concerns regarding poor marketing strategies by livestock farmers, coupled with poor recommended standards of beef as well as the quality of cattle, resulting in low production of expected milk yield and calves per year.
Against this backdrop, the Smallholder Agribusiness Promotion Programme (SAPP) has embarked on a programme aimed at addressing the challenges of marketing meat and dairy products by funding co-operatives through matching grants to improve the quality and increase the number of livestock, construction of abattoirs and bulking centres.
SAPP is a Government project spear headed by the Ministry of Agriculture but funded by International Fund for Agriculture Development whose objective is to give loans to small-scale farmers and promote market linkages.
The other main objective is to construct abattoirs, bulking centres, purchasing cattle, sheep, goats and processing meat products.
The funded bulking centres are found in Mongu, Choma, Kalomo and Livingstone.
It is envisaged that this intervention will assist farmers to increase the number of cattle as well as have reliable sources of breeding stocks.
Mazabuka acting District Agriculture co-ordinator, Nawa Mabuku says that despite having favourable conditions in Zambia, which are well known for pastoral farming, a drastic reduction in livestock production has been evidenced due to high incidences of livestock diseases such as east coast fever, foot , mouth disease and contagious bovine pleuro-pneumonia .
Dr Mabuku says this has left many farmers with few or no cattle at all, which has led to high poverty levels in rural farming areas.
He commends SAPP for the financial aid, as it will help to improve the capacity of beef production, milk production and breeding centres for their small livestock and marketing centres for their final products and by-products.
The selected co-operatives which have been funded under the matching grants engaged in beef production are expected to construct abattoirs which will have facilities for slaughtering, skinning, cleaning, packaging and cold rooms for storage.
The co-operatives which have been offered matching grants are Kande Multi-purpose Co-operative, Siwa Multi-purpose Co-operative in Mongu, Magoye Dairy Co-operative in Mazabuka, Mbabala Multi
–purpose Co-operative in Choma, Kalomo Dairy Co-operative in Kalomo and Mukuni Multi-purpose Co-operative in Livingstone .
Siwa Multi -Purpose Co-operative Society chairperson Kalimba Muzaza said for the past two decades, farmers in Western province had lost hope, due to the challenge cattle diseases had posed for some time now, they had no other means of sourcing funds for cattle restocking .
Mr Muzaza said they had many programmes that were implemented in the past but still could not address the challenges faced by livestock farmers.
“It had been very difficult to eradicate livestock diseases and it was not easy for them to sell beef animals in bulk at once,’’ said Mr Muzaza.
He said transportation of cattle from Western Province to any other provinces is still a challenge.
“Even those in other provinces are facing similar problems, transportation is a challenge, they are forced to sell few animals at once as it is not easy to find good means of transport,’’ said Mr Muzaza.
Mr Muzaza explained that farmers who attempt to sell in places like Lusaka and Copperbelt provinces appreciate the market price noting that although they sell their animals at a higher price, they still face a serious challenge, as the prices keep fluctuating depending on the number of animals available on a
particular day.
He says that this trend had negatively affected mainly small-scale livestock farmers who sell their animals individually, with poor bargaining power, they incur huge income losses.
He was also of the view that, it would be prudent to empower livestock farmers belonging to cooperatives to buy cattle from small-scale farmers and process the meat in order to run their businesses effectively and make them more viable.
SAPP programme manager Kwibisa Lywalii says that the programme will ensure they facilitate and impart knowledge on good livestock management skills, animal health management, quality control and market linkages.
Mr Lywalii says SAPP will work closely with the Department of Agribusiness under the Ministry of Agriculture, they intend to work together to train farmers on how to become successful business entrepreneurs.
He noted that the department of Livestock was also key and would play a cardinal role in assisting livestock farmers.
“The Department of Livestock will help farmers to keep cattle in a proper way and ensure that correct drugs are administered, monitor the duration of treatment, inspect and declare whether the animals are fit for human consumption or not,’’ said Mr Lywalii.
Some farmers say the project is good but the Government should ensure that the majority farmers benefit from all Government projects and programmes.
Patrick Chilufya of Kampelembe farm bloc in Luanshya, says Government should ensure that all farmers’ benefit from the projects and programmes aimed at boosting agriculture production.
“Information should also flow so that we participate and benefit from Government funded projects and avoid the same people benefiting,” said Mr Chilufya.
SAPP’s intervention is unique in that, it has brought all key players on board to enhance collaboration in all areas of livestock production.
It must be noted that one way of promoting this type of collaboration with selected co-operatives should be to continue working together as a team made up of farmers who keep different animals drawn from different towns in Western and Southern provinces.
This can spill over to other provinces as well. At the end of it all, there will be a success story to take a leaf from.
It should be noted that each group of farmers have roles and responsibilities to play in the value addition chain.
All in all, the major advantage of having such projects is that farmers will be able to improve in their business plans as well as decision making as they will be having a wide range of experts who are helping to solve current problems which occur in livestock production as well as enhance market linkages to prospective
markets and potential buyers. –NAIS
