May 24, 2004

 

 

Botswana Government Moves To Protect Farmers In Cattle Feed Sector

 

The Ministry of Agriculture has stepped into the booming cattle feed business to save desperate farmers from unscrupulous people selling sub-standard products.

 

The acting director of Animal Health Dr Musa Fanikiso said the intervention became necessary after the discovery that the market is being flooded with sub-standard cattle feed.

 

The cattle feed business has become lucrative, especially with persistent drought in the recent past. Though the drought has abated, the business is still attractive as most farmers are now resorting to supplementary feeding especially when preparing cattle for sale to the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC).

 

The BMC has introduced a new carcass grading system, which promises farmers better prices.

 

However, farmers attending a recent workshop on the new carcass grading system complained that there is a lot of cattle feed around, whose quality could be suspect.

 

Fanikiso said the Ministry of Agriculture hopes to save cattle farmers from bogus enterprises selling cattle feed.

 

He said they have started discussions with the Botswana Bureau of Standards to come up with quality standards for cattle feeds.

 

He said the standards would also apply to cattle feed from outside the country.

 

Meanwhile BMC chief executive Dr Motshodi Raborokgwe has told farmers seeking separate payment for cattle by-products like skins and hooves that they are not getting a raw deal because BMC prices are determined per kilogram of live animal.

 

He explained that even if the BMC was to pay separately for the carcass and the by-products the price would be the same. He added that the BMC stopped the grazier scheme because it was losing money. Currently there is no need for the scheme because many people are operating feeding lots. "The BMC has no business getting into other businesses," he said.