Mmegi

Farmers want slice of P97m FMD budget

Mthombeni
Mthombeni

At Jackalas 1 in Zone 6B, the silence around cattle kraals is louder than words. Where livestock once moved freely and small businesses thrived on the back of beef sales, fear, uncertainty and shrinking incomes now dominate. Farmers, vendors and butchery owners here say they feel forgotten, even as government announced a P97 million allocation to respond to the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak. Mmegi Correspondents LARONA MAKHAIZA and LESEDI MKHUTSWA report

JACKALAS NO. 1: When the Mmegi team descended at the border village this week to hear from the farmers and butchery owners themselves, they had a mouthful to say.

The area has become the epicentre of the country’s latest Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak, with the suspension of trade, export, slaughter and related activities involving cattle, goats, sheep and pigs across the country.

Editor's Comment
FMD management: A ticking time bomb

“The trouble with government regulation of the market is that it prohibits capitalistic acts between consenting adults.”~ Robert NozickWhile government must contain the disease, it must also confront the growing economic hardship caused by its response. For many rural households, cattle remain a source of livelihood and the only means for tending for thousands of families, and for these kind of people the longer the restrictions continue, the...

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