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 Nqobile Tshili, [email protected] 

LUPANE State University (LSU) is offering an artificial insemination programme to help farmers improve the quality of their goats. 

The initiative aims to reduce the number of farmers who spend significant sums buying Boer and Kalahari Desert bucks to develop their herds, but who sometimes sustain losses during transportation and acclimatisation. 

LSU is breeding the Boer, Kalahari, Matabele, Mashona, and East African goats to add value to indigenous breeds through its Dryland Agro-Innovation and Industrial Hub. 

Ms Jessica Pullen, acting innovation lead at the hub, said farmers can use semen bought from the university to conduct insemination, reducing costs to zero and increasing profits.

“We have an artificial insemination programme for goats, which means that as a farmer, you can have does (female goats) without needing a buck. 

You can buy semen, and we at LSU provide facilities to enable farmers to conduct insemination of goat semen. This reduces the costs of a buck to zero, increasing profits for an ordinary farmer,” said Ms Pullen.

She said the university hopes the artificial insemination programme will satisfy farmers who want to import exotic goats to improve their herds. 

“The other challenge is that our farmers want to import, and during importation, these animals are used to certain conditions. Moving them to a different environment increases their mortality rates.

“So, we encourage farmers to buy the semen and use their indigenous goats for cross-breeding purposes. Some of these exotic breeds are on antibiotics, which an ordinary smallholder farmer cannot afford. They may not even be told that the animals are surviving on antibiotics, which becomes a challenge when they are brought into the country.

She described cross-breeding of goats as a value addition process that improves the quality of local goats. For example, Ms Pullen explained that the Matabele goat has a large frame but low weight, and when cross-bred, it almost doubles its meat.

“We are producing cross-breeds. We have seen that the Matabele goats have large frames but poor carcass weight. So, we are bringing in exotic breeds to optimise the carcass weight of our indigenous goats. For instance, a Matabele goat can weigh up to 40kg to 50kg, but when cross-bred, it can weigh up to 70kg to 80 kg. We are adding value to our indigenous breeds,” she said.

She also revealed that the university is running an out-grower scheme programme, providing breeds to local smallholder farmers to improve their animals. 

She noted that the breeds produced at the university are drought-tolerant and disease-resistant. 

“This is the type of genetic pool we want for our community because we want to minimise medication costs, enabling them to profit from goat production. We have also introduced an online application where a farmer can weigh their goats, and the application can tell you the weight of the carcass. This means farmers will know the real value of their animals, preventing them from being cheated when they take them to the market,” she said.

Ms Pullen highlighted the potential for commercialising goats, something society has not fully appreciated. 

LSU Vice Chancellor, Professor Pardon Kuipa, said they are building communities through knowledge in line with the university’s motto, and aligning with President Mnangagwa’s expectations. 

“When the President was in China two weeks ago, he said the country has transitioned into a knowledge-based economy. A knowledge-based economy means we have started solving some of society’s challenges using knowledge. We are no longer doing things on a trial-and-error basis; we are now using scientific methods to solve these challenges,” said Prof Kuipa.

He indicated that the university sees great opportunities in the goat project and will establish an abattoir and factory using resources from the project with the support of the Government. 

“We are thinking of adding value to the goat project. We are constructing an abattoir and want to establish a goat skin processing facility to produce leather. 

“Leather from goat skin is very useful in producing women’s bags because it is softer and tender, which women prefer. We have completed the designs and are talking to the Government. This might be the very first industry of its kind in Lupane, and we are getting support,” he said. – @nqotshili