Zimpapers Logo

Edgar Vhera

Agriculture Specialist Writer

THE El Nino Drought Action Committee (DAC) is visiting the most drought-hit areas countrywide to oversee the roll-out of immediate mitigation measures being implemented to curtail rising poverty deaths in livestock.

In response to the 2023/24 El Nino drought, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development set up the El Nino DAC on April 29, 2024 comprising the academia, parastatals, private sector, development agencies and itself.

The DAC’s task is to develop immediate (six months), short-term (three years), medium term (five years) and long-term mitigation and resilience building measures in the agriculture sector.

It has eight sub-committees covering each critical pillar chaired by private sector and/or key Government officials.

The sub-committees are for cereals, horticulture, grain mobilisation and strategic grain reserves, water resources and sanitation, irrigation, livestock and fisheries and agriculture engineering, mechanisation and farm infrastructure and development.

Speaking at the Zimbabwe Agriculture Resilience Symposium and Drought Action Committee feedback meeting held in Harare recently Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development permanent secretary, Professor Obert Jiri said all sub-committees must move with speed to curtail increasing reports of cattle deaths across the country.

“We are gathered here today when urgent issues need to be addressed out there, as we hear that some 3 500 cattle succumbed to El Nino drought ever since it started in December 2023.

“Over the last three months we have lost 691 cattle and these are very urgent issues to be addressed today,” he said then.

Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Deputy Minister Davis Marapira and some DAC members yesterday visited Gwanda district for first hand appreciation of the interventions being done by developing partners to provide water to both people and livestock.

“We came to Gwanda district because we have heard reports of cattle deaths with 900 cattle dying last week alone between Insiza and Gwanda districts. So, we came here for a first-hand appreciation while we assess the pasture and water conditions to come up with measures to mitigate these challenges,” he said.

Dep Min Marapira said World Vision International had stepped in to provide water for livestock and humans through sand water extraction using solar technology.

We encourage the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) to follow what World Vision is doing – extracting water from sands three to five metres deep, as the water levels have dropped to around 300 metres, making drilling an expensive, time consuming and difficult exercise, he added.

Dep Min Marapira encouraged DAC sub-committees to hasten the provision of water as most livestock deaths are due to water shortages in their localities or even in distant areas.

“If the distance to water sources was shortened to three kilometres many of the livestock deaths could have been averted. Treasury should provide more funding to Zinwa to drill more boreholes,” he added.

Apart from water provision, 15 000 tonnes of silage have been availed from Kwekwe district for distribution to agro-ecological regions 4 and 5 with the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) helping in its movement.

Dep Min Marapira said farmers can hurry up the silage shipment by organising themselves into groups and collecting the inputs from Kwekwe.

He said farmers were also buying survival feed to supplement the deteriorating grazing pastures, moving into October, the hottest month.