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Initiatives to commercialise goat production in Zimbabwe are beginning to bear fruit. Wallace Mawire reports.
Building resilient goat market systems
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Major interventions “The VALUE project is working in 12 districts of Zimbabwe namely Mbire, Rushinga, Mudzi, Chikomba, Chipinge, Buhera, Beitbridge, Gwanda, Matobo, Nkayi, Lupane and Binga where a number of initiatives are being undertaken,” said Newton Chari, VALUE project co-ordinator from ActionZimbabwe. The interventions include the setting up of 12 Goat Improvement Centres (GICs) in the 12 districts to provide hands-on training for farmers, goat breeding services with improved breeds, such as Boer Bucks, animal health through the provision of dipping services and drug sales through established drug stores as well as improvement of animal nutrition. Zvikomborero farms and Michview Enterprises Chari added that the project is working closely with two private sector players – Zvikomborero Farms, based in Chivhu in Mashonaland province, and Michview Enterprises in Matobo, Matebeleland South province of Zimbabwe. “The role of these integrators is to work closely with the small- and medium-scale farmers towards the realisation of commercial goat breeding using their expertise,” said Chari. Zvikomborero Farms is an integrated agribusiness with farming operations located 120km south of Harare in Chikomba district. Michview Enterprises is a Zimbabwean livestock company, specialising in the supply of goats and sheep for breeding and slaughter. Lindani Ncube from Michview said
14 African Farming - March/April 2021
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HE VALUE CHAIN Alliance for Livestock Upgrading and Empowermnet (VALUE) is a fouryear pork and goat meat enterprise commercialisation project. In Zimbabwe, it is managed by global justice federation, ActionAid Zimbabwe and partners including Mercy Corps, COSV, Bradford Farming, Shamiso Farms, Zvikomborero Farms and Michview Enterprises.
The VALUE project is helping farmers upscale their livestock projects.
that his organisation imported exotic goat breeds from Namibia under the initiative. “We are supplying the local smallholder livestock farmers, with exotic goat breeds which they will cross-breed with the indigenous goat breeds. These crossbreeds will adapt very well with the local environment,” he said. He said that this will help the farmers to upscale their livestock projects. Dr Divine Simbi-Ndhlukula from Zvikomborero Farms informed that under the initiative, they had imported some Kalahari Red and Boer goats from Namibia. They are supplying smallholder farmers under the initiative with improved genetic breeds. “We will supply the established GICs with the cross-breed varieties and we also offer them training on livestock production,” she said. Study undertaken Chari revealed that under the initiative, in 2019, a scoping study was undertaken for the government of Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe, the goat sector’s contribution to the livestock sector is 19%, according to the National Agriculture Policy of 2018 to 2030. The study made several recommendations, including the adoption of a farmer
vertically integrated value chain focusing on formation of groups and associations, goat market system development platforms at provincial level, capacity building of goat farmers, input supply focusing on adoption of supplementary feeding systems, processing focusing on linkages between abattoirs and goat aggregation centres at district and provincial level, wholesaling, retailing and consumption, goat value chain governance, and others. Benefits “Farmers are accessing fodder crops for supplementing goats’ nutrition from the fodder gardens established at the centres,” Chari said. The project is reported to have registered more than 10, 000 farmers and has helped them to form 12 district-level Goat Producers’ Business Associations to spearhead commercially-oriented activities, such as bulk input and output logistics, aggregation of goat stocks for bulk purchases, among others. Chari added that the project completed construction of a Goat Holding Centre at Matopos Research Station, in the arid Matebeleland South province of Zimbabwe to enable abattoirs and supermarkets to buy goats in bulk. h
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