Africa-Press – Botswana. Farmers in Bobirwa should employ extensive care for the recently acquired livestock through a re-stocking exercise in order to safeguard their animals from cross-border livestock theft that ravaged the region and left farmers hapless and impoverished.
Speaking during a kgotla meeting in Gobojango, Monday, Member of Parliament for Bobonong, Mr Taolo Lucas challenged recipients of livestock from the ongoing re-stocking exercise to heighten their care and security for the animals so that they did not fall prey to cross-border thieves.
The MP said when animals were tended to properly, farmers would plug the gap of losing them as had been over 40 years ago.
Farmers in Bobirwa have been losing their livestock through cross-border livestock rustling into Zimbabwe especially for over 40 years.
Some of the livestock were crossed into South Africa in a similar fashion.
Following a government’s decision to assist the farmers who lost their livestock through a re-stocking exercise, MP Lucas said the ongoing exercise would help alleviate farmers’ plight.
“The problem of cross-border livestock rustling has marred my whole five-year term as an MP and therefore I should pay homage to all of you who relentlessly fought hard to bring this dogging problem to a near halt,” said Mr Lucas.
However, the MP criticised individuals who wanted to steal the shine from mephato (traditional regiments) who he said fought gallantly against the ravaging crime.
He said such people deserved condemnation from the people. The MP said leadership was alive to challenges facing mephato and that as the captains leading the war against livestock theft, they deserved a better treatment.
While commending all for an all-out war against theft, Mr Lucas warned that the dogging problem was yet to be defeated and therefore called for vigilance.
“This matter isn’t at rest yet. The thieves may be lurking, considering that the area is now getting animals back,” he warned and added that failure to be extra-cautious could revert farmers to poverty. The
MP also agreed with farmers that a ravaging drought was impending and farmers were urged to prepare.
Also, the MP was in consonance with farmers who appealed for livestock feed subsidy.
So far, the Ministry of Agriculture has completed phase one of the re-stocking exercise where farmers received goats, sheep and donkeys.
Phase one saw distribution of a total of 267 sheep to 18 beneficiaries, 4 890 goats to 244 beneficiaries and 296 donkeys to 296 farmers across the district in an exercise that began January and completed March.
The second phase of the exercise will see the ministry distributing cattle to farmers across the seven villages of Motlhabaneng/Lentswelemoriti, Bobonong, Lepokole, Semolale, Gobojango, Mabolwe and Molalatau.
However, the cattle re-stocking exercise has been completed in Molalatau and Lepokole and the ministry is in the process of procuring more cattle, according to the ministry’s public relations officer Mr Clifas Kemiso.
So far, the ministry has procured 771 cattle.
The cattle are sourced and kept at Sefophe quarantine for processing.
At the end of the exercise a total of 2 827 cattle will be procured and distributed to deserving farmers.
In addition, the ministry will buy and distribute 97 bulls per syndicate at a ration to be determined by factors amongst other things.
Mr Kemiso observed a struggle in securing and procuring cattle and therefore appealed to farmers to sell their cattle so that the ministry could complete the exercise.
However, the toughest challenge was with procuring donkeys where they even stretched as far as Moshupa and Boteti region to get supplies.
The ministry PRO hastened to indicate that the ministry paid almost all suppliers on time.
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