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Elita Chikwati Harare Bureau
THE government has banned the movement of cattle for grazing, fattening, marketing and breeding purposes to contain foot and mouth disease and cut on vaccination costs.

Only cattle going straight for slaughter will be permitted to move from one district to another.

The new measure will see farmers establishing feedlots and marketing the livestock in their areas.

Initially, farmers used to transport their cattle to abattoirs for sale but now the abattoir operators will have to move to the farming areas to buy cattle and fatten them there.

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) had by February spread to six districts a situation which saw the country receiving assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the European Union.

Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister responsible for livestock, Paddy Zhanda said the ban in cattle movement will reduce costs as the “vaccines aren’t for free”.

“Vaccinations aren’t for free; they cost us money and we buy them from Botswana vaccine factory. We don’t want to rely on vaccinating cattle as a way of controlling FMD. We also don’t want to centralise the marketing of cattle, which will then make it possible for the spread of the disease.

“There’s an element of outbreak of FMD that we can deal with at a certain centre and then there’s an element of spreading of FMD that’s what we don’t want to do,” he said.

Deputy Minister Zhanda said once auctioning of cattle and the establishment of feedlots is done at a place where the cattle are being produced, farmers will not have to bear the cost of transporting cattle all the way to the market and if they’re not sold, transport them back again resulting in the spread of FMD.

“These are the new measures that we’re putting in place to make sure we restrict the movement of cattle from one district to another and make sure that the auctioning and fattening of cattle is done there.

“We’ve since established that centralisation of cattle marketing isn’t for the benefit of the small scale farmers but it’s for the benefit of those established auctioning companies. Abattoirs want cattle to come to them, and not them to go and look for cattle where they are.’’