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Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
THE Catholic Relief Services has availed $37 000 to be used in spearheading a goat production programme aimed at empowering 2 000 small scale farmers in Beitbridge District.

Beitbridge Rural District Council (BBRDC) chief executive officer, Mr Peter Moyo, said the project would run for 18 months in all the 15 rural wards.

He said so far they had trained two field workers to spearhead the initiative in Beitbridge East and West constituencies respectively.

He said the livestock production project would start at the beginning of next month.

“We have the capacity to produce top quality goats though we have to improve in a few project management areas.

“You will note that we are in an agricultural region where livestock production is dominant and hence the need to create model farmers for the district,” said Mr Moyo.

“It is important to adopt a business management model if farmers are to get maximum benefits from these animals.”

He said the goats’ production would be rolled out concurrently with fodder production to support nutritional needs.

Mr Moyo said with the help of CRS, they had established 28 Farmer Learning Centres (FLC) in the district.

The FLC, he said, were important in empowering small scale farmers on production and marketing skills.

“We have discovered that though our farmers are good with rearing methods, marketing remains a great challenge.

“The whole idea is to provide that missing link by pooling together all the development players involved in animal husbandry activities,” he said.