BOBONONG: The Zone 7 area especially Bobirwa is being strangled by a drought that is anticipated to worsen this year owing to lack of rainfall, lack of grazing land and water.This has left many farmers empty handed as they lost uncountable number of their cattle to drought necessitated by lack of market since the area is still yet to be declared a green zone after the 2006 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak.
This means that the only hope for market is local butcheries but the fact that supply exceeds demand subjects farmers to exploitation as they are forced to sell at giveaway prices because of lack of alternative market. While many of the farmers have lost all their cattle, those who could afford to buy supplementary feed have a few remaining and this has drastically reduced the cattle population in the area. The situation has reduced Babirwa, whose economic mainstay is cattle farming, to destitution. Livestock Officer in Bobonong Motswakae Gondo said when approached that Selebi-Phikwe region has not recovered from drought in the last 10 years with Bobirwa area worst hit.
