Walter Nyamukondiwa Chinhoyi Bureau
Zvimba Rural District Council has embarked on an ambitious cattle breeding project that seeks to improve the herd in the district. This will be achieved through acquiring 15 pedigree Nguni and Tuli bulls that will be deployed in the villages on a rotational basis. It follows similar attempts using the artificial insemination method, where an assessment has shown a below 50 percent success rate. Council finance chairperson Councillor Robin Bailes Smith told a budget consultation meeting recently that the project could also be used to encourage residents to pay development levies.

“As part of local economic development and also as part of our strategy to eradicate poverty, we procured 15 pedigree Tuli and Nguni bulls earmarked to improve the local cattle breeds. The bulls are a replacement for the artificial inseminations programme which we had set rolling,” said Clr Smith. Clr Smith said they were advised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development that their success rate on the insemination programme was below 50 percent, hence the switch to live bulls. The bulls will be managed by village heads on a rotational basis until every village is covered. Clr Smith said council would leverage on development levy collections in determining the order of distribution. The bulls are expected before the end of this month, upon which distribution will commence. To expand the programme, Zvimba RDC will introduce a $10 cattle levy for every beast that is sold to abattoirs or individuals for breeding purposes.

“This is intended to sustain the cattle breeding programme that we have started and in order to fund the purchase of more bulls and construction of more dip tanks,” said Clr Smith. The introduction of live bulls comes at a time when the artificial insemination programme has run into problems at a provincial level owing to a shortage of kits. At least 300 cattle in each of the seven districts in the province were being targeted.

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