Africa-Press – Botswana. The Meat Industry Regulatory Authority (MIRA) will promote resilience of livestock and meat sector through creating a conducive business environment, says Minister of Agriculture, Mr Fidelis Molao.
Minister Molao made the announcement during the MIRA Bill consultative meeting in Gaborone recently.
He said MIRA would also promote the interests of all value chain players, ‘from farm to fork’.
He added that the authority would be tasked with ensuring that livestock and meat industry was profitable and sustainable through promoting innovation, research and development.
“The authority has a mammoth task of stimulating high standards of food industry regulation. As part of its mandate, the authority will institutionalise stakeholder engagement for fostering ethical and fair business practises within the sector,” he added.
Mr Molao reiterated that the MIRA Bill proposed, among others, regulation of the sale of livestock, import and export of livestock, operations of livestock transporters, abattoirs and meat establishments, product grading, meat inspection, marking of livestock and livestock products as we all as packaging.
“The authority will also promote safe meat production through implementation of quality assurance schemes, animal and food traceability,” he said.
He emphasised that MIRA would work closely with other regulatory institutions in the animal health, animal welfare, environment and food safety domain such as the veterinary services, public health, environmental health and law enforcement authorities. He said the establishment of MIRA was a major milestone in the overall goal of government to deliver on the promise to the livestock producers and Batswana, of a prosperous and a vibrant livestock sector worthy of investment. However, he said it was crucial to have harmony between local and international policy, legal instruments and standards.
“This is essential for the sustainability of this initiative and by extension, the livestock and meat industry,” he said.
To that end, he said, government had embarked on a review of all legislation in the animal health and food safety domain in order to avoid overlaps, duplications and even gaps in the legislation.
Those include review of the Diseases of Animals Act, Cruelty of Animals Act and the repeal of the Livestock and Meat Industries Act and its regulations.
“The Ministry of Health is also reviewing the Food Control Act, and will propose a food safety bill, which will also be harmonised with the MIRA legislation and the other laws,” he added. On other issues, the minister informed the meeting that government had established the Botswana Public Health Institute (BPHI), which was mandated with coordinating public health emergencies, including food borne zoonotic pathogens and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).
Further, he said, MIRA would work closely with the BPHI and other regulatory institutions to ensure high level of protection of Batswana and consumers of foodstuffs including those in export markets.
“Notably, MIRA will not be a huge State Owned Entity or parastatal. Government has envisaged a lean, agile and responsive organisation that will implement some of the regulatory functions hitherto performed by BMC and DVS,” he said.
He added that there would be a coordination mechanism between MIRA and other agencies, particularly DVS, to ensure that there were no overlaps, duplication and gaps and to ensure adherence to regulatory norms and international standards.
“Initially, MIRA will require seed capital from government and will also finance its operations from licensing fees and from the cattle export and slaughter levy,” he said.
Subsequently, he said other forms of revenue generation would be identified by the governing board and management of the authority.
For his part, Director of Veterinary Services, Dr Kefentse Motshegwa, said the draft bill was intended to be read to the National Assembly for the second time during the winter parliamentary session. Dr Motshegwa said the objective of the bill was to re-enact, with amendments, the Livestock and Meat Industry Act (Cap. 36:03).
“This is to strengthen the regulatory framework for the livestock and meat industry by establishing a regulatory authority intended to create a conducive business environment in the beef sector,” he explained. Also, Dr Motshegwa said the Bill also stood to regulate and protect the interests of both farmers and consumers, while attracting foreign direct investment in the meat industry.
Part of the submissions from the stakeholders was to replace the word ‘beef’ in the bill with ‘meat’ as the bill covered all from poultry, goats, piggery and beef. Stakeholders also insisted that the minister be withdrawn from the majority of responsibilities bestowed in the bill.
For More News And Analysis About Botswana Follow Africa-Press
