FMD recurrence reignites painful memories
FMD stress killed my father-aggrieved farmer
FRANCISTOWN: The recent detection of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Zone 6(b) in the North East District (NED) has reignited the pains that livestock farmers in the greater zone experienced in the past. Like most households in Botswana, farmers in Zone 6 (b) depend on livestock and crop farming for a living.
One of the affected farmers, the owner of Dzapela 2 Farm in Tshesebe village, Aggrey Makhila, has shared with Mmegi the pain of restocking time and again due to the recurrence of FMD in the region.
Makhila was one of the farmers who lost 30 cattle worth about P130,000 in 2011 when the government took a decision to depopulate in order to control FMD. Over the past decades, farming has not been that rewarding for Makhila and other farmers since their livestock is being killed once again due to FMD.
Makhila, who has been a farmer for the last two decades, has suffered from financial and social problems, which he attributes to the perpetual outbreak of FMD in Zone 6. The worried farmer told Mmegi that FMD has and continues to bring pain and misery to his life.
“I have lost my father due to the stress after his cattle were killed following the outbreak of FMD in 2011. My father succumbed to a heart attack after his expensive bull worth P40,000 was culled but he was only given a measly P1,700 as compensation. Since then, my family is still haunted by post-FMD trauma,” a worried Makhila said.
Makhila currently owns 55 cows, 30 weaners and 67 goats, which will be slaughtered following the government’s decision to depopulate livestock in the zone. “My most expensive breeds of cattle are Brahman and Bonsmara bulls that are each worth P21,000. So, the blanket P2,480 that the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) is compensating us with is peanuts. This compensation amount should be reviewed because it was decided by the government alone without the input of farmers. MoA should take into account that the livestock that they are planning to kill is private property and as such, there should have been thorough consultation with affected stakeholders before arriving at that unjust decision,” Makhila bemoaned. The aggrieved farmer says if one is given 10 weaners after his cattle are exterminated, it takes time for them to mature and adapt to their new environment. “Eleven of the 30 cows I was given in 2011 died because they failed to adapt to the new environment. I encountered a huge loss after spending a lot on supplementary feeds and vaccines. The most painful thing is that the government refused to adequately compensate me,” he added. Makhila also said farmers in Zone 6(b) are not psychologically ready for the current culling exercise since the MoA has not offered them any counselling.
“Psychologically we are not ready because most of us have experienced this before. Imagine after restocking and you are told that all of your stock will be killed,” he said, adding that the MoA should have prioritised counselling all the affected stakeholders before taking the drastic decision of killing their cattle.
During a recent media briefing at Thapama Hotel, an official from MoA said the counselling of farmers in Zone 6(b) will commence as soon as it is practically possible to do that. To add salt to his pain, Makhila revealed that he recently took a loan to drill a borehole and in the process he used P89,000. “I took the loan with a view that I am going to sell all my 43 weaners for P130,000 in order to repay the loan,” added the troubled farmer.
Meanwhile, some of the farmers are considering taking the government to court over the low compensation offered by the MoA. This will be the second time they will be doing so after 2011. The farmers succeeded in their lawsuit after the court ruled that the P1,700 that MoA compensated farmers with was unconstitutional.