Emergency probe as FMD tests national buffers
Mbongeni Mguni | Friday January 30, 2026 12:41
Although the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) had not responded to emailed questions by Press time yesterday, other insiders said the results of the emergency probe were being fast-tracked and due by Thursday afternoon.
Under a restocking exercise that began after the August 2023 FMD outbreak in the same Masunga area, the government in October 2025 delivered the last cow. The government restocked the area with 7,000 cattle and should the latest suspected cases be confirmed, another culling exercise will have to take place and more funds be allocated to restocking.
Farmers told Mmegi that unlike the 2023 outbreak, there were hopes that more vigilant detection and the national defences put up in the weeks since neighbouring Zimbabwe alerted to their outbreak would help contain any disease on this side of the border.
“We are hoping to receive a report as an indication of how far the disease has extended, then we take it from there,” Botswana National Beef Producers Union (BNBPU) spokesperson, Andrew Seeletso, told Mmegi yesterday.
“The whole intention for BNBPU, farmers associations and government, is to block and contain that disease where it is. “If they say it's 10kms inland, we should see the possibility of having a buffer there where we, as the farmers and other stakeholders, will deploy our resources to augment government, and we can release resources like labour, vehicles, fences, finances and whatever else to help that.”
The BNBPU has activated its Disease Control Account and is receiving donations already, including a P30,000 contribution from a farmers’ association and others. The union has established a team of experts, mostly consisting of former Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) directors who worked on previous FMD outbreaks over the years.
“Our biggest fear with the disease is how far it has gone,” Seeletso said. “In previous years, you would find that we would pick this disease when it had already spread, but this time, because there was a pre-warning that FMD was ten kilometres away and there were preparations, we hope it has not extended a lot. “Then we would be able to stop it and contain it.”
As per the protocol of previous outbreaks, the government has already banned nearly all movements of live cattle and their products, while also freezing exports and suspending imports. Should the suspected cases be confirmed as an outbreak, a tighter quarantine will be imposed on the affected area, followed by processes that lead up to mass culling. Farmers will then file for compensation from the government, which can be either in the form of cattle (restocking), cash payments or both.
The Ministry of Lands and Agriculture and numerous other stakeholders, including the Botswana Defence Force, which patrols the country’s borders, had been on high alert after Zimbabwe confirmed an FMD outbreak in the province neighbouring Botswana. South Africa, meanwhile, has for months been battling an FMD outbreak which has thus far affected seven provinces, including the two that are next to Botswana.
As part of the national defences set up after Zimbabwe alerted to its outbreak, local authorities recently rounded up and culled 48 cattle that had crossed the border to the affected region. The border in that region is the site of frequent outbreaks as cattle easily crisscross the porous boundaries, while stock thieves from the neighbouring country further complicate the challenge.
The livestock restrictions are a blow to farmers and consumers alike, while the suspension of exports comes as the Botswana Meat Commission struggles to balance its books over the years, which have been impacted by low throughput and frequent disease outbreaks.
Average meat prices in the country rose by 8.5 % last year, influenced by the FMD restrictions in South Africa that reduced competition for local producers here and gave them more elbow room for mark-ups.
As authorities tighten movements and monitor other controls, the BNBPU called on all farmers to unite to counter the latest threat. In the past, some farmers have snuck cattle out of zones ahead of restrictions, while the government’s takeover of the Tati Company farms, which cover around 45,000 hectares, is also posing a challenge to the control of movement. The farms used to act as barriers to the movement of cattle, but the takeover has meant easier passage through the area, farmers say.
“Our market as the European Union is one and as farmers, we are one and therefore it is our duty as farmers to protect that market and protect the Botswana Meat Commission,” Seeletso said.
Meanwhile, other farmers in Pandamatenga are also reeling following recent floods in the area and are pleading with the government to provide equipment to clear affected fields and fast-track planting to save the season. Following delayed payments for produce delivered to the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board for the 2024-25 cropping season, farmers in the area only managed to plant about 20% of the area available in the current season.
“Over the last two weeks we received more than half of our total rainfall in one week,” Pandamatenga Farmers Association executive member, Ryan Neal, said in an interview carried by the Special Economic Zones Authority.
“This caused severe flooding and our infrastructure could not handle it. “At the moment we have 20% of the total cropping area that has been put under production and of that we are not sure yet and are still assessing what has been completely written off and what we can still salvage.”
With about 40,000 hectares of prime black cotton soil available and one of the country’s highest average rainfall amounts, the Pandamatenga commercial agriculture area is an arable farming paradise and the country’s main grain basket. Pandamatenga’s commercial farmers anchor the country’s production of cereals and pulses including sorghum, wheat, cowpeas, chickpeas, mungbeans, sunflower and others.
Pandamatenga farmers have managed to reach the national demand for sorghum, the national staple, underlining their importance in the country’s food security.
Neal said the harvest this year would depend on how quickly floodwaters can be cleared in the area and other factors.
“Unfortunately, time is not on our side now,” he said. “Our cropping season will be determined by the next few weeks in terms of our opportunity for producing sorghum. “We may have to change our cropping plans to something like sunflower or beans depending on the weather permitting and whether we can access our land. “Sorghum is a problem now because our opportunity for high yields is decreasing day by day and the latest we can plant it is around the end of February otherwise we will not receive any yields from it. “Each farmer will make their assessment of when they can plant.”
He continued: “Sunflower can be planted up to the end of February, beans up to the end of February and maybe with vegetables, some farmers may not plant because there has been too much damage in the fields. “Potato production will be under severe stress this year and there will be none planted unless we get immediate relief from the floodwaters,” he said.