IFAD MISSION VISITS SMALL LIVESTOCK FARMERS IN THE COPPERBELT PROVINCE

By DOMINIC NALI

SMALL livestock farming represents an important asset of rural households as they play a central role in achieving their livelihood objectives.

The lack of consistent integrated strategies among the small livestock farmers to focus their limited resources on identified and attainable goals has been one of the challenges that needing utmost attention.

To ensure such challenges reduces, the Enhanced Smallholder Livestock Investment Programme (E-SLIP) through the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock is investing its efforts in improving small livestock production among the farmers in the country.

Copperbelt Permanent Secretary Lawrence Mwanza said the Enhanced Smallholder Livestock Investment Program (E-SLIP) is empowering farmers on the Copperbelt province with small livestock.

Speaking when the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) mission team paid a courtesy call on him at his office, the Permanent Secretary said that the restocking exercise is providing a sustainable income source for the beneficiaries in the province.

“The ESLIP project has restocked Cattle, Goats, pigs, chickens and rabbits thereby providing a sustainable source of income especially to the youths and women in the province,” Mr Mwanza said.

Mr Mwanza said the ESLIP programme has further helped small livestock farmers to have an improved food and nutrition security at both individual and household levels.

Sustainable funding in the livestock sector is crucial because it directs finances towards positive social change by promoting long-term programmes that are profitable to the small livestock farmers in the country.

Such initiatives helps to address challenges like climate change, resource depletion by channeling capital towards sustainable practices. 

Dr Charles Odhong, a Livestock Specialist from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) said his mission visit to the Small Livestock farmers in the Copperbelt Province is meant to find ways on how his organisation through the E-SLIP can contribute effectively towards the livestock sector in the country.

Dr Odhong said the mission is to support the ESLIP and ensure that the program is ready to scale up the implementation with an escalated and proactive approach.

“Our visit to the Copperbelt is meant to appreciate the challenges our small livestock farmers are going through,” he said.

Dr Odhong said other than the challenges, the IFAD mission visit to the Copperbelt is also meant to assess how the additional funding can effectively deliver in the 2-year extension of the E-SLIP programme.

Small livestock farmers often have found joy in the way they are connecting with E-SLIP, the benefits they are deriving from their farming practices and the pass-on- the gift program.

Joseph Mwansa, is a farmer and a member of the Ndola South Pastor’s Fellowship Cooperation expressed his joy at the rate his pig farming has progressed despite the challenges he faced during the last farming season.

Mr Mwansa said from one pregnant pig he received under pass-on the gift exercise, the number steadily increased to 60 pig.

“The highest number of pigs I raised was 60 and out of that number, I sold 22 and made good money,” he said.

He said the money realised from the sale of his pigs has been invested into other crops including soya beans and maize.

The main factors that drive livestock farm profitability are the level of forage utilisation per animal and the amount you are utilising per hectare. Forage farming can be profitable, especially when maximizing forage quality and yield through practices like multi-cut silage. 

For Margaret Musonda Chikoti, being chosen in 2021 by the E-SLIP to become a forage seed grower and multiplier was a step in the right direction for her livestock production activities.

Ms Chikoti confirmed having challenges to feed her 25 dairy animals because she lacked feed and medication was very expensive forcing her to sell some of the cattle so that she could just keep up with a few.

“Today, I am very grateful to the Enhanced Smallholder Investment Programme (E-SLIP) for empowering me with seed for animal feed, it has really helped me with milk production that has increased from 7 litres to 17 litres per cow,” she said.

Ms Chikoti did very well in the first year of becoming a forage grower and made a lot of money that was used for the expansion of her forage field to three hectares

“After the encouragement to plant more by the program, I also diversified to other types and bean grass such as Brachiaria, Panicum Maximum, White Buffalo and Velvet beans,” she said.

Meanwhile, Livestock Production and Productivity Coordinator Ellison Msimuko said with the 2-year extension of the E-SLIP, the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock will focus on controlling diseases such as Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) and East Coast Fever (ECF) eradication especially in Western and Northern provinces.

Mr Msimuko said E-SLIP is immunizing calves that are less than three years old against East Coast Fever disease so that numbers of livestock are improved.

“Our Republican President Hakainde Hichilema has given us a task to increase our livestock in the country to 7.4 million by the end of 2027, so these are part of the interventions E-SLIP is implementing in the country,” Mr Msimuko said.

He said the IFAD mission is in the country to see how farmers under the programme have benefited from the immunization program and learn lessons from the farmers who were empowered with pigs.

Mr Msimuko said the mission was happy that farmers were able to find the market for their pigs in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) though they are still grappling with the pricing issue for their pigs which is unfortunately determined by the buyers’ themselves.

As the programme nears the end in 24 months’ time, it is very clear that continuity has been the key emphasis by the ESLIP Program under any intervention they provided to farmers because this has allowed farmers today to produce more and become sustainable - NAIS