Although Botswana Meat Commission has been through a lot of adversities relating to the farmers failing to meet its demand on the thorough put of cattle last week, the organization held competitions and an education campaign event in Francistown as a way of sensitizing farmers on the importance of adding value to cattle farming and further increase a number of cattle sold to BMC.
The General Manager of the Livestock Procurement at BMC, Clive Marshall, told Sunday Standard in an interview that the initiative, themed “Kgomo ke Khumo” is geared at improving the thorough put of the cattle at the abattoir and the feedlots.
“Today it is a draw for those farmers who sold five or more cattle to BMC and their names were picked to be engaged in the competition,” he said.
He revealed that the “Kgomo ke Khumo” initiative was formed in November last year after they had spent an enormous time addressing the issue of thorough put of cattle at the abattoir. Clive also mentioned that the abattoir found it very crucial to nurture the partnership between the producers, being the farmers and BMC.
He went on to highlight that around 80 percent of the national herd is from the communal farmers therefore through such education campaigns in different villages and districts, farmers would have an in-depth on how to improve production and the value of livestock.
Ndaba Nkomo, a Public Relations Consultant for BMC, also told Sunday Standard in an interview that these campaigns or education of farmers played a critical role in making the farmers realize that BMC served the European Union markets therefore it is important that value is added into the products in order to compete globally with other countries. Nkomo revealed that there are some farmers who always have a misconception that age to cattle is very crucial but in actual fact it is the value that counts.
“This campaigns can sensitize farmers on the importance of adding value to their products and help them achieve more through increased profits and also help themselves to maintain their farms and ranches for the better,” Nkomo said.
He also mentioned that the quality of products was very important not only for the image of the farmers, but also for the image of BMC and Botswana across the world. He also stated that farming is one way in which the country can help reduce the over reliance on diamonds and through the campaigns farmers could grow and contribute immensely to the economy.
“BMC also has cattle procurement initiatives designed to help farmers recognize the better value of their cattle investment such as the feedlot schemes, 24 offloading, cattle advance and premium payment schemes,” said Nkomo.
He added that the feedlot scheme is designed to make sure that farmers bring their cattle of not less than 8 months to BMC or any of its contracted feedlots for feeding and supplement. Nkomo added that farmers can also take advantage of the 24 hour load shedding which provides farmers with transport for their cattle to BMC to reduce transport hassles for farmers.
The event was supplemented by different competitions relating to the campaign and three farmers emerged winners of a generator, branding oven and a digital cattle scale. Many other prizes were also awarded to members of the public who took part in the competitions.
