Botswana and Zimbabwe join forces to fight FMD
Zimbabwe’s Minister of Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Joseph Made, has announced that Zimbabwe and Botswana recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding that would see the two countries jointly fighting foot and mouth disease (FMD).
“In the initial agreement, the Botswana government had agreed to give us 20,000 cattle but with the current progress we have made in implementing the project, the number looks set to rise to 50.000,” Mr Made said.
“In times of need, we assist each other and this is one of the best things that has happened to us to get the livestock sector going again,” he said.
The cattle deal comes courtesy of the credit lines the Botswana government availed to Zimbabwe to help revive its cattle industry and the rest of the value chain components.
Mr Made said Botswana’s objective was to look at opportunities presented in Sadc, where the countries jointly clean areas of FMD to create a vibrant beef industry in both countries.
The deal also includes the vaccination of cattle within 40 kilometres on both sides of the border. Vaccination will continue for the next 24 months.
“Our intention is to reach a position in which we have a clean environment for beef production. We want to emulate Botswana’s example of paddocking certain areas adjacent game parks to prevent unrestricted interaction between livestock and wildlife, suspected vectors of FMD,” he added.
