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Sydney Mubaiwa in Zaka
Farmers should embark on fodder crops to ensure that there is enough supplementary feeds for their livestock in the event of a drought, an official from the Livestock Production Department has said. Speaking recently at a field day in Mushaya village, Zaka district livestock development officer Mr Crispen Tukwa said most farmers in the district lost their livestock, especially cattle during recent droughts, leaving them without draught power.

“As the Livestock Production Department, we recorded a lot of cattle deaths during the 2015-2016 farming season,” he said.

“As such, we have embarked on an awareness campaign for farmers, urging them to grow fodder crops as a corrective measure to curb livestock deaths due to droughts.

Zaka District is a dry area which falls under natural region IV and it receives an average annual rainfall of 600mm or less.

About 867 cattle died from the period of 2015-16 in Zaka due to food shortages, according to Mr Tukwa.

Speaking at the same event, Zaka West legislator Cde Vincent Mawere said he was in the process of engaging financial institutions to fund farmers grow fodder crops.

“We don’t have enough funding to do the project on a large scale, but for a start, we are engaging banks to assist such farmers with loans as they will use cattle as their collateral security,” he said.