Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. THE Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development ministry has urged farmers to prepare for potential livestock feed shortages, particularly for cattle, ahead of the lean season.
This warning comes considering last year’s devastating agricultural losses due to the El Niño-induced drought, which resulted in inadequate water supplies and feed.
Consequently, the last season saw the death of 13 829 cattle.
In an interview with NewsDay Farming, the ministry’s Agricultural and Rural Development Advisory Services (ARDAS) acting chief director Leonard Munamati urged farmers to prepare.
“We are encouraging, this time around, farmers to prepare livestock feed. We don’t want to repeat the challenge which we had last year, where some cattle died due to shortages of feed and water,” he said.
“We are saying this is the time to make sure that we prepare for the period where we would be having challenges of feed.”
The warning comes amid last year’s devastating outcomes.
Since that time, the ministry has been encouraging farmers to take proactive measures to avoid a repeat of this crisis.
“So, farmers should produce hay bales which are very good and nutritious,” Munamati said.
“Hay bales are large bundles of dried grass, bound together in rectangular or round fashion that are used to feed their cattle.
“Thus, we also encourage farmers to do silage so that they can also feed their cattle.”
In addition to hay bales and silage, he urged farmers to practice urea treatment of stover saying this could enhance the protein content of livestock feed, thereby significantly improving the nutritional value of stored feed.
This, he added, would be more beneficial for cattle.
“We encourage farmers to do urea treatment of stover so that we improve the protein content of our stover at harvest,” Munamati said.
“We know that traditionally, farmers harvest the stocks and keep them and then store the stocks to feed the livestock when it becomes necessary.”
However, he stressed that the responsibility of ensuring cattle received adequate nutrition lay primarily with the farmers themselves.
“So, every farmer should be responsible for their livestock,” Munamati said.
“It is not necessarily government’s role to make sure that our cattle get feed, but every livestock farmer should be able to get their feed and prepare for the coming lean season.”
By taking proactive measures, farmers can help ensure the health and well-being of their livestock and contribute to the growth of the sector.
The sector is expected to grow by between 1% and 2% this year, with the cattle population projected to increase to 5,8 million.
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