EU market brings hope to Bobirwa farmers

| Friday February 25, 2011 00:00

This custom is dying out but is still followed in the country-side. Cattle are a security against bad times, because they can be sold or exchanged for other goods.

In Bobirwa, they still cling to this old order and greatly value their cattle.

Before the 2006 outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) which robbed veterinary Zone Seven, which covers Bobirwa, of an opportunity to sell their cattle to the lucrative European Union (EU) market, the Bobirwa area was hit by a debilitating drought which left many animals dead in the area.

However, these combined forces did not discourage farmers from abandoning the old age practice of rearing cattle. They simply soldiered on even when odds were stacked against them.

Bobirwa, which is generally dry, is susceptible to natural disasters whose results have previously seen many cattle farmers closing their kraals with literally nothing to keep in them. Before the 2006 FMD outbreak, the Bobirwa area had 28 FMD free years and had incessantly sold its cattle to the lucrative EU market.

This natural advantage vanished in 2006 with the entire area declared a red zone with those wanting to sell their animals selling them to butchery owners or just individuals usually at lower prices. This was after the government took a stance not to kill the infected animals but choosing to inoculate the whole area, as it was isolated from other veterinary areas.

Restrictions on the movement of live cattle and their products were imposed, literally restricting infected animals to one zone area, thereby avoiding the spread of the infectious FMD.

The value of cattle in the red zone later depreciated forcing some farmers to retrench their herdsmen, as they could no longer afford their employment. Bobirwa being a dry area, farmers are generally forced to supplement feed so their animals could survive the dry spell with fewer pastures.

The World Organisation for Animal Health has recently approved Zone Seven as a Foot and Mouth free zone. This means that cattle and other cloven hoofed animals from Zone Seven are now of the same FMD status as before the 2006 outbreak of the disease.

However, the current movement controls will remain in place because the government is still negotiating with its international trading partners to take beef products from the area.

The declaration of the Zone Seven as FMD-free has opened opportunities for beef from the area to access EU market and for farmers to sell their livestock to other FMD free zones in Botswana.

Addressing a Kgotla meeting in Bobonong recently,  Minister of Agriculture, Christiaan de Graaf said the 2006 outbreak in the Bobirwa/Mmadinare area had started in Sekgopye along the border with Zimbabwe and spread to neighbouring cattleposts, resulting in Zone Seven losing its FMD-free status.

Mmegi recently visited farmers in Bobonong, Semolale, Gobajango, Mabolwe and Gwanyoo just to find out how ready they are to start selling their animals to the lucrative EU market.

A reputable Bobirwa farmer, Masole Dialwa, who retired from his teaching post in 2006 to look after his cattle, is waiting with bated breath the day the EU will buy cattle from Zone Seven.

He appreciates that when Zone Seven was still a red zone, cattle just circulated within the area, with butchery owners being the main buyers. He says the situation would later improve with he zone seven opening for non-EU which is not so lucrative.

'You should appreciate one thing that to raise cattle in this dry area is not cheap. We feed these animals just as we do to our children and when prices are very low it means we have to eat from our savings and possibly retrench our herdsmen,' said 69-year-old  Dialwa.

He is positive that with the impending opening of the EU market, 'all the workers serving the livestock industry will stand to benefit.' Dialwa has two cattleposts within the zone; one at Maiswe and the other at Mantswane near Semolale.

As a long time farmer, Dialwa will keep his ears to the ground and take advantage of the early opening of their zone to the EU market.

In an earlier interview, Dialwa was able to show that cattle had played and continue to play a significant role in his family. He has been able to help government by taking some of his children to world-class universities using the proceeds from his cattle.

As a retired educationist, Dialwa values education to the extent that he has used his cattle wealth to empower his children.

Dialwa is a known regular seller of his cattle to the Francistown Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) abattoir and certainly, once it opens for EU, he will be one of the first to sell. Dialwa also rears cattle in Zone Five and Zone 10, which are not affected by the restrictions found in Zone Seven.

At Semolale, youthful farmer and nominated councillor in the Bobirwa North East, Onkarabile Dikinya of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) is waiting to take his animals to the BMC abattoir in Francistown once it opens up for the EU market after five solid years of banishment.

He is worried that as the area recovers from the debilitating effects of the FMD, cattle rustlers from Zimbabwe continue to wreak havoc in Semolale and the neighbouring areas.

'Imagine, 15 of my cattle were driven into the veterinary fence near the border with Zimbabwe and they were all killed to avoid the risk of them transmitting FMD into Botswana,' he explained.

He has sold some of his animals to the butchery owners and to the non-EU through the BMC abattoir in Francistown, 'it was just that we have to sell to keep life going on, but the proceeds were not satisfactory at all.'

His worry stems from the fact that for the cattle sold to the non-EU market, 'we were paid very little as our animals reportedly lost their value in quarantines and the stuff.' Dikinya decries the fact that Zimbabweans continue to raid their kraals and steal their cattle.

'I feel that once the EU market opens, a lot of farmers will be willing to sell a good number of their animals so that during dry months they are able to feed their animals from their pockets.'

Onkgopotse Dikinya, 53 is a farmer and businesswoman in Semolale. She runs a shop and a butchery only known as Kganchi, which she says, has been named after one of her parents.  Although she is married in Semolale, she originally comes from Shoshong village. She says any time the EU market opens up, she is ready to sell some of her animals. As a farmer, she says comparatively, the EU prices are better than for non-EU. She elaborated that at times an average cow will fetch about P4,500 at the EU market whilst at the non-EU it will fetch P3,000 and less.

'For non-EU market it's worse than selling to butchery owners because there are so many hurdles a farmer encounters before the animals reach the abattoir.

Due to the compulsory quarantine for non-EU some of the animals reached the abattoir with broken limbs and generally compromised quality,' he declared worriedly. As a butchery owner, Dikinya observed that, 'we are going to find it tough as our buying prices are likely to be very bad with Francistown BMC abattoir opening for the EU market with good prices. Our profit margins are going to shrink obviously.'

On the road to Mobile, 38-year-old farmer Johane Kgakishi, who rears his animals in Mabolwe, is also waiting anxiously for the day the abattoir will open up for the EU market. 'I used to sell to the BMC abattoir before my animals were wiped out by the drought in 2006. But, I will take advantage of any new developments,' he promised.

For Diraditsile Madiope, 48, from Mabolwe village near the border with Zimbabwe, 'this is an opportunity that we have been waiting for because we have otherwise being giving away our animals just like that.' Once the EU market opens after the area was declared FMD free, he will definitely sell his cattle.

Madiope is employed by the local clinic as a driver but also depends on cattle rearing and ploughing in the neighbouring cattlepost of Dauemeje-Leebana.

He stated that their greatest worry now is the outbreak of FMD in Gwanda in Zimbabwe as it is just across the river.

'Zimbabweans have made it a habit that they steal our cattle and donkeys with impunity and in the process they are likely to spread the infectious FMD here,' he   feared.