eBusiness Weekly
Elita Chikwati
HARARE – Government is in the process of engaging livestock stakeholders and experts to come up with possible modalities on how best farmers can access funding under the Command Livestock, Fisheries and Wildlife Programme.
Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Mr Bothwell Makodza of the Division of Livestock Production and Development said work on the command livestock programme was underway but said farmers and financiers also had a major part to play in the success of the programme.
“Currently we are engaging with different stakeholders to come with modalities on how farmers can access the fund. We are just coming up with the basic modalities of the value chain from production to marketing and this will be part of a checklist of requirements from those applying for the programme.
“At the end of the day it is the financier who will come determine the modality to use to recover his or her costs. We are also not going to prescribe to farmers the projects. They should undertake but they are free to come up with their proposals depending on their interests and available infrastructure,” he said.
Mr Makodza said the Command Livestock Programme was for serious people who wanted to engage in business and not for experiments. He added that farmers who want to benefit from the programme will be expected to submit a bankable proposal on what they require from the funding. He said Government was bringing in $300 million to guarantee the programme.
Of this, $80 million will go towards infrastructure such as fencing and dip tanks. The fencing will be done at wildlife areas such as Hwange and Gonarezhou to fence off wild animals from livestock and reduce the spread of diseases.
“Sakunda has pledged to bring in $10 million as seed money and one to two million chicks per month to support the programme. We are still sourcing more funds and stakeholders are open to come for engagement,” he said.
The Command Agriculture Livestock Fisheries and Wildlife Programme, which was recently launched by Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister Air Chief Marshal Perrance Shiri (Retired) is expected to run between three and five years.
Livestock farmers from all sectors — communal to A2 and institutions including churches, prisons and police farms across the country — are expected to benefit. The programme will cover all aspects of livestock including beef cattle, dairy cows, pigs, sheep, goats, fish, wildlife and small stock such as poultry and rabbits.
