Livestock sector urges Government to secure more stock feed raw materials

FOLLOWING Government’s recent setting up of a drought action committee to curtail poverty deaths in livestock, players in the sub-sector have urged Government to secure extra raw materials for stock feed formulation.

Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LAMC) agricultural economist Dr Reneth Mano yesterday said there was need for Government to expeditiously respond to emerging domestic shortages of essential raw materials such as maize bran and cotton seed meal.

“The Government should swiftly facilitate imports of key raw materials, to ensure that our stock feed factories consistently have a supply of cattle maintenance feeds and drought survival meals,” said Dr Mano.

The stock feed industry has seen a notable increase in the production of drought survival feeds, driven by the growing demand from a diverse range of farmers, particularly in the smallholder cattle production sub-sector affected by drought.

“This growth has resulted in a sharp increase in demand for raw materials like maize bran in excess of the current capacity of the domestic milling industry making it necessary for strategic supplementary imports,” said Dr Mano.

The players are stressing the importance of proactive measures to secure the necessary ingredients for feed production, as any disruption could threaten the progress made in curbing the drought impact.

The surge in demand for cattle feeds due to the drought is observed to be outpacing the limited supplies of cottonseed meal requiring the strategic suspension of exports and careful importation of cottonseed meal by private stock feed manufacturers.

“This proactive strategy is crucial for addressing the growing needs of our smallholder cattle farmers, who are now depending on supplementary feed to keep their livestock healthy during difficult conditions,” said Dr Mano.

The call comes at a time Government had moved in to introduce a raft of measure to address the various feed and water related challenges facing livestock communities in drought-stricken regions.

Director of livestock production Dr Sitokozile Sibanda said they were taking stock of the effectiveness of drought mitigation strategies currently being rolled out.

“The Presidential borehole drilling programme is immediately providing drinking water for livestock facing water shortages while the stock feed distribution programme is supplying mainly maize silage and wheat straw to livestock units, which are suffering from nutritional deficiencies,” she said.

In August Government managed to drill 197 boreholes, significantly enhancing water access for cattle with an additional 317 boreholes being tabled for this month, which will further increase the availability of water points for livestock.

Farmers are also receiving pasture grasses and pasture legume seeds to plant as fodder reserves with the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development coordinating training to enable them to produce pastures on their own as part of the medium to long-term strategies to deal with the problem.-herald