I grew up at a time when the cattle were respected more for their sentimental, cultural and economic value and should continue to be the case today. At the heart of every Motswana should be an in-print of Kgomo being the source of life, prosperity, opportunity, solace, healing, pride, spiritual strength and wealth. Batswana raised cattle for milking, for fattening and slaughter as food, cattle hide provides a range of domestic products ranging from sandals to military shields, from mats to clothes, from ropes to bags and a lot others. As draught animals cattle pulled ploughs to produce grain and other food, pulled sledges and wagons for transportation of goods in trade and homesteads ware in moving places or just simple travel. Cattle were at the centre of the life and economy of Batswana. No government of the people of Botswana for the people of Botswana and by the people of Botswana will and should tinker with this for it is at the core of the soul of this nation. How the Botswana Meat Commission has been a fraud creating a sustained melody of false consciousness among unsuspecting Batswana around this treasured asset is unforgivable.
We promise a viable alternative in the cattle and broader meat industry through agriculture propositions that embrace the well-rounded significance of ‘kgomo’ of the yester-years and a vociferous claiming of opportunities and advantages brought by the twenty-first century. Our alternative government will promote the diversification of export products, and will encourage export to as many countries as possible. This alternative government will ensure that the majority of farmers, particularly those from the communal areas, benefit from the country’s agricultural export markets. Our parties converge on the idea of the need for emphasis to be placed on improving factors which contribute to household food security, particularly the affordability and the accessibility of basic food items on a year round basis. Our parties converge on the notion of facilitating agricultural development through appropriate development interventions.
According to the cocktail of our policies on agriculture government intervention will be limited to the correction of market imperfections and socially- unacceptable effects. We find it imperative that we achieve economic growth that aims at reducing poverty and that identifies agriculture as the pillar to achieving steadfast breakthroughs in achieving sustained linkages for development amongst the most vulnerable communities. Our cocktail of policies wishes to harness the productive capacity of the key assets of land and labour by providing labour-intensive employment for our people and by stimulating development and growth in the rural economy.
We will therefore re-structure the current approach to development by re-asserting agriculture as key in achieving a non-mineral based inclusive economic growth. Polices such as ISPAAD represent regimes of patronage where the most vulnerable people, small scale and traditional farmers, are ridiculed and compelled to be beggars when they should be the leaders in efforts of economic growth. The expenditure in such programmes makes one to wonder whether thorough thought is put in creating such schemes or intends to throw money at agriculture as a temporary measure aimed at gaining ephemeral political leverage. The output in the sectors both crop and animal husbandry do not justify the level of expenditure invested in them. Besides, they scratch not where it really itches when we consider real issues that can put food on the table of as many Batswana as the nation can rightfully afford. Our cattle industry in turn is crippled by inadequacies of the government in protecting the meat corporation and most importantly the small holder farmers. The sheer lack of resolution in affirming for growth of the beef industry is an excuse to create a cash cow for nefarious and conflicted buddies at the stinking expense of Batswana and their hallowed cattle economy.
Apart from general improvement of the sector, it is important that we achieve a measure of comprehensive opening up of the agriculture sector where each is assisted as they and the economy needs a yet each allowed to express themselves to feed the nation without unnecessary restriction and regulation.
Given the moment during which the message is made, it is critical to devote a few lines to the livestock sector specifically and what we would do differently in the cattle/beef industry to avoid the calamity, disaster and momentous scandal that the Botswana Meat Commission has become thanks to the current government. This view will be following from the broader principles and propositions in Agriculture.
It should be fair to observe that we should be self-sufficient in so far as agricultural products are concerned. Even though we have a grain deficit, our beef exports are able to pay for all the grain we need to import. We are the only country in the world where its cattle population out numbers its human population, and since we cannot consume all our beef, we have to continue to be a beef exporting country. In order to reach the ultimate objective of creating a viable livestock industry which significantly contributes to economic activity and improves the livelihood of Batswana, a holistic approach is needed. This should start at the production areas and move to the cattle marketing, beef processing and beef marketing areas. The two things we have to do are:
1) to increase the productivity of the national herd and
2) sell our beef to the highest net paying markets. We should make sure that what we export is beef and not cattle as by exporting the latter, we will also be exporting a significant supply of jobs.
The cattle sector is still a significant livelihood strategy for most Batswana who derive livelihood contributions and income from it. Even those Batswana who are in formal employment take cattle as their pension and retire to beef cattle farming. The beef cattle sector is regarded as a sector that could improve rural livelihoods and touches the core of the lives of most Batswana.
So a vibrant and successful beef industry would see most Batswana benefiting and being lifted out of poverty.
Our beef cattle production is practiced under two distinct production systems. The traditional communal system, which is the most predominant accounts for over 80% of the cattle population. The commercial system, which accounts for the remaining cattle population, is mostly found in freehold and leasehold farms.
Productivity in farms is generally higher than in the communal land tenure system where calving rates, mortality and off-take rates are better in the former than in the latter.
By the nature of its structure and ownership, most returns would be reaped by concentrating resources and improvements at the communal sector. This is where one will reap the low hanging fruits and bring about the quickest improvements. Increasing the productivity of the national herd should start with increasing the calving rate from the dismal 50 percent at best in the communal sector to at least the 70% recorded in the commercial sector. Calving rates depend on conception rates which other than diseases are directly related to the bull to cow ratio. Our traditional farmers still have a bull in the kraal irrespective of how many cows they have. For this to change, the Animal Production Unit of government would need to be capacitated and be more visible.
Increasing the productivity of the national herd cannot be achieved without improved management, which calls for increases fencing of our range lands. Currently, only about 15 percent of the national herd is in fenced farms while 85 percent are in communal areas. The percentages need to be the other way round and this should call for more community farms which could be achieved through joining some drift fences separating arable land from range land together for a particular community.
Our dry climate is a blessing in that diseases are not that prevalent and the Government continues to vaccinate against those which would mostly affect the calves from growing to weaners. The current shift of the cattle industry from the traditional oxen production to the commercially driven, substantially weaner-based production structure is a shift in the right direction and should continue to be facilitated.
However, we would as an alternative government open up and liberalise the beef export market to other players subject to adherence to sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures to protect the industry. This would introduce competition and in the end benefit the farmer. This should however only be done once the current mess, poison, evil enterprise and blatant graft that is at the BMC has been sorted out and the BMC is once again back on its feet.
It is our view though that farmers and the nation’s beef industry would be worse-off if the BMC monopoly is replaced by a private individuals’ monopoly. A balance between the two, regulated and directed by the Batswana Wealth Fund will assess the situation together with all farmers to build a framework that makes each one of them productive, value adding and sure of a fair return in each’ s respective investment into the industry.
This process will include ensuring that at the level higher than players in the industry, value adding through products from cattle is ensured in order to create, keep and sustain local jobs – leather and leather products being an obvious example. Let me hasten tom add that there are a lot of Batswana cattle in the traditional Foot and Mouth Disease areas whose beef cannot be exported neither in fresh or frozen state.
In this case, canning the beef locally already, would make a viable option for exporting to regional markets while creating jobs for Batswana. In a few weeks, I will reflect on FOOD and then later our view on the effects of mismanaging Foot and Mouth Disease.
