Agrinews December 2012 - Ministry of Agriculture

SMALL STOCK AS ABREAKTHROUGH AREAArticle: Kesegofetse TawelePhoto: Pius NkundaOver the years, small stockproduction has beenperforming poorly inBotswana despite the country havinglarge numbers of sheep and goats.Currently, there are approximately 1937 971 million goats and 279 237sheep in Botswana. The performanceof the small stock industry has beencharacterized by low productivityin terms of birth and off take rates.According to the Department ofAnimal production survey the offtake of sheep stands at 5.1 %while that ofgoats is 5.7%.The target ofthe departmentis 10 % for bothsheep and goats.The birth rate forsheep and goatsstands at 58.8 and71.1% respectively.ProductionReproduction isa complex processthat is subject tochanges in thevarious stages ofthe reproductivecycle. Small stockproduction inBotswana is facedwith challenges like poor managementplan, health, poor nutrition andlack of breeding plans that make itdifficult to quantify the effectivenessof reproduction. Moreover lowered offtake is due to the fact that only 2.1% ofgoats and 7.5% of sheep in Botswanais under commercial ownership whilethe rest is under communal ownership.Despite low productivity, sheep andgoats populations have grown by 41%and 29% respectively in the recentpast. In addition, the number of sheepand goats slaughtered at municipalabattoirs and butcheries increasedfrom the previous year. In the year2009/2010 goats slaughtered were14741 and has increased to 19 781 inthe year 2010/2011 while sheepslaughtered increased from 5 652 to6 206 in the same period.CommercializationHowever, lack of organizedmarket has madecommercialisation difficult. Mostof small stock meat is for homeconsumption and in social ceremonieslike weddings and funerals. Only asmall amount is sold to butcheries,individuals and chain stores. Thishas resulted in the country importingtonnes of small stock meat despitethe country having large numbers ofsmall stock. In the year 2010 Botswanaimported 179.07 tonnes of lamb atthe cost of P4 823 792.00 and 48.42tonnes of mutton costing P1 080388.00. In 2011, Botswana imported206.27 and 15.22 tonnes of lamband mutton respectively. The importof live small stock on the other hand,has gradually decreased. The numberof live sheep imported has decreasedfrom 223 in 2011 to 129 in 2012,while goats decreased from 435 to249 over the same period.InterventionsThis situation has prompted theGovernment to identifysmall stock industry as animportant breakthrougharea. According to MrBueno Mokhutshwane,government hascome up with someinterventions to try andcommercialize smallstock production. Someof these interventionsinclude encouragingsmall stock farmersto start associations,active participation ofthe recently formedSmall stock industryFederation of Botswanain order to turn thesmall stock industryaround, establishment of databaseof local production and per capitaconsumption, exploiting the potentialof dairy goats and lamb production.The LIMID component is alsoidentified as the key area to increasesmall stock production. Sinceinception 2709 people have benefitedwith a total of 36 541 small stock. Themaximum funds for each beneficiaryis P12 000 of which P10 000 is forbuying animals while P2000 is forfeeds.December 2012