Botswana: prizes on offer to cattle farmers
28/01/2010
The Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), the African country's sole meat export company, has launched a promotion to encourage small-herd farmers to work with it.
The company estimates that more than 80% of the national herd is in the hands of "communal farmers". BMC is engaging in education programmes in villages across the country to encourage farmers to sell their cattle before they are too old and is offering incentives to producers who are willing to sell five or more cattle during the promotion period, which runs between the beginning of February and the end of March.
On announcing the programme, BMC's general manager for procurement, Clive Marshall, said: “The trend has been to hold onto cattle as a form of wealth and sell them when they are old. For us to satisfy the domestic and international markets we try and promote quality to ensure we get the best value for the cattle: young, finished and at their prime. Prime Grade Meat which has to be exported to foreign markets such as the European Union (EU) has to be at its best."
The company has set up a network of feedlots to which small farmers can send cattle at least eight months old for feeding up before slaughter.
Special prizes are available over the two-month period for farmers who agree to hand their cattle over to a BMC feedlot or abattoir, including generators, digital cattle scales and engine pumps. There will also be one grand prize of 20 heifers and a bull.
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