Botswana, Uganda foster collaboration in animal production

Botswana and Uganda are on a mission to foster bilateral cooperation in the field of livestock production.

Last week, the government of Botswana, through the Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI) hosted a delegation from Uganda led by the country’s Minister of State for Animal Industry, Bright Rwamirama.

The Ugandan delegation also included the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of State for Animal Industry, Kasura Kyomukana, Head of Mission in Uganda High Commission of Pretoria, Professor Paul Amoru, Makerere University’s Professor Masembe Charles and Commissioner, Dr Anna Rose Ademu.

The delegation toured amongst others, the BVI Plant, the National Agricultural Research and Development Institute (NARDI) and the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) abattoir, during the threeday visit in Botswana.

The tour culminated from a meeting by the State Presidents of both Botswana and Uganda held in Kampala late last year, which was then followed by a meet between the technocrats from the two governments.

At the heart of the recent visit, the two governments mulled over the exchange of expertise in the field of research in livestock production. The BVI had announced that they have made positive strides in the production of the Foot and Mouth Disease vaccine. The vaccine is to put an end to a decade’s long phenomenon that has threatened animal production in the country.

The Eastern African counterparts, are leading in the manufacturing of animal feeds and nutrition and seek a collaboration with Botswana. Rwarirama cautioned that the two countries should not work in silos but exchange expertise in an effort to improve the agricultural sector in their own states while that would also prove to be cost efficient.

“We (Uganda) need the vaccine, we need the support from your expertise and I am sure you need our support in agro-feeds, you need our support on animal nutrition side, you need our support in the diary sector and also in some of the commodities your are importing here expensively but you would be getting them easily,” Rwamirama said.

“It is our time to break these colonial boarders and what we are doing is to defy colonial rule. We need to stop working in silos, we must work in a programme.”

For her part, Botswana’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Nancy Chengeta, said it has become evident that there is a lot that they can learn from Uganda. She said with the population of the livestock in Uganda standing at over 14 million, is not comparable and the value add in Uganda is far much ahead.

“There is a lot of research material that we need to exchange between the two countries from the research institute and NARDI. I believe we should start working very closely with Uganda on the animal sub-sector and crop sub-sector, so that we exchange research materials so that we realise the impact on the people that we are leading,” Chengeta said.

“There is also what they can learn from us; we are already at the international space in terms of our beef and other areas. So as African countries this is the time to collaborate, the time to work together and the time to consider ourselves as one family because indeed we are that. We have a market of over one billion yet we keep on rushing to other markets.”

“In the past we have never really taken note (of these advantages) and basically we were running to Western countries whereas amongst ourselves there is a lot to trade and there is a lot of material that we can exchange among ourselves,” said Chengeta.

The two countries are leaders in animal production in Africa.

Rwarirama cautioned that the two countries should not work in silos but exchange expertise in an effort to improve the agricultural sector in their own states while that would also prove to be cost efficient