Depopulation exercise in Zone 6b ends
Lebogang Mosikare | Tuesday July 25, 2023 06:00
The farmers, whose cattle have been destroyed, will receive no compensation from the ministry following the promulgation of the Statutory Instrument No 12 of 2023 published in the Government Gazette of February.
On June 7, MoA released a statement titled ‘The cattle depopulation exercise in the containment Zone 6b ends’. The press release informed farmers in the zone that the cattle registration and collection exercise is expected to be completed by June 13. “After June 13, farmers will be given 14 days’ notice elapsing on June 27 to bring all cattle that may be remaining.
This is in accordance with the Statutory Instrument No 12 of 2023 published in the Government Gazette of February 2023. All cattle that remain unaccounted for in the containment zone at the end of the notice period shall be destroyed in order to enable the completion of the depopulation exercise,” read the release. The depopulation exercise was triggered by the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in August last year after a farmer in Butale village in the Tsamaya extension area noticed suspicious signs on his cattle.
The MoA has disbursed P100 million as a war chest to control the spread of FMD in the zone. The FMD was only detected in the villages north of Bisoli Ranch, namely Jackalas 1, Ramokgwebana, Tsamaya, Tshesebe, Butale, Senyawe, Siviya, and Mabuzane. Other villages within the zone include Matsiloje and Matshelagabedi extension areas, but the cattle in these villages were found to be free of FMD.
In September last year, the government took a final decision to depopulate the area and compensate farmers for the killing of approximately 10,000 FMD-infected cattle in Zone 6b.
Initially, MoA had set a compensation fee of P2,840 per beast but later increased it to P3,000 after the farmers complained. In addition, the bulk of the proceeds accrued from the sale of the meat will be given to the farmers while government will only retain money used for transporting cattle from the affected areas to the abattoir.
The Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), which is the receiving entity, had engaged about 10 commercial trucks to transport live animals from Zone 6b through FMD green zones, 6A and 3b, to the Maun BMC for slaughter. MoA had also engaged an armed escort as a disease control measure. MoA’s public relations officer in the NED, Kelebogile Mosarwe, told The Monitor on Friday that not all farmers in the district were able to comply with the Statutory Instrument (SI). “Some farmers told us they were not able to bring their cattle to the MoA containment points. Some of them told us their cattle escaped while they were taking them to containment points.
They were, however, very much aware of the inherent risks of not making sure that they bring their cattle to MoA officials. We have been working in conjunction with chairpersons of farmer associations in the zone to swiftly complete the exercise.
We have made numerous public pronouncements using various mediums to alert farmers to bring their livestock to our containment points. We believe that all farmers in the affected areas have heard our message,” Mosarwe said.
The spokesperson added that a team of officials from the ministry is busy on the ground looking for any remaining livestock in the zone for destruction since it is now considered stray livestock.
“We expect to complete the depopulation exercise on Saturday (July 22) because only a few livestock is left in the area. Farmers associations in the affected zone have been cooperating with us very well and they have been showing our team the remaining livestock for destruction.
After we complete the depopulation exercise, we will call residents in all the affected villages and inform them that we have finished,” Mosarwe explained.