FOR a country striving to move from the over dependence on mining and diversify its economic activities, the deliberate efforts by the Government to aid livestock farmers is more than welcome.
Agriculture is the most viable option for a landlocked country like ours that is endowed with good climate and vast arable land coupled with large water bodies.
These factors give us the foundation from which to start from and it will be benefiting the majority rural population that depends on agriculture for their daily sustenance and well-being.
Government has made no secret of their desire to improve the agricultural sector and make Zambia a regional food basket. So it is gratifying that they have backed their talk with finances showing more than just political will and rhetoric.
Livestock and Fisheries Minister Michael Katambo at the weekend revealed that Government is to channel more than K5 million towards a cattle stocking and restocking exercise in order to ramp up the sector, targeting the small-scale farmers in the outlaying areas of Zambia.
Mr Katambo said the programme aims to reach all the 10 provinces in the country including all breeding centres as a way of making Zambia among the top exporter of beef and beef products in these parts of the world.
The minister, as all of us should be, was encouraged to see that international organisations such as Oxfam and Heifer International are on ground spearheading programmes aiding the very vulnerable among the rural population in women and children in their flagship exercise dubbed ‘Passing on the gift’.
This approach entails a farmer or family which has benefited from the programme passes to the next the offspring from the livestock that they were given. This way they pass on the benefits of their training as a means of distribution of wealth in an equitable and sustainable manner.
With the grain and crop marketing in such turmoil, it is prudent by the farmers to embrace livestock because of the sustainable nature of livestock farming as it has few or better market and poises fewer problems in terms of storage as you wait on the market.
Unlike crops, livestock gives the owner freedom of cashing in as and when they need the money to attend to their daily needs, whether it is school fees, medical bills for the rural farmers who might not have access to banks or the financial freedom.
Many Government initiatives do not trickle down to the poor rural people in time, but this exercise will help in mitigating poverty levels by empowering them with means to better their lives.
Agriculture remains the brightest hope for the rural population as a means of beating hunger and poverty, especially livestock farming in light of rising prices of farming inputs such as seeds and fertilisers. It also improves food and nutrition for the rural families with little or no means. The milk and meat these animals produce provides the both food and money when sold.
Livestock especially cattle is used for farming crops by the rural famers who are not mechanised in ploughing the land and transporting crops to markets after harvest.
The minster went further to implore youths and women to take up fishing farming as Zambia was blessed with a lot of water bodies that had potential to be used for fish farming coupled by favourable wether and friendly Government policies for the sector.
It is, therefore, in order for the rural populace to take advantage of the Government gesture by making use of the resources placed before them and let the people responsible be prudent and trustworthy in handling these resources so that they reach the intense beneficiaries.