. . . as Zim shifts focus to food security
Tafadzwa Shoko,Staff Reporter
GOVERNMENT has pledged to recapitalise the livestock sector in a bid to boost the national herd which had fallen drastically during the economic crisis.
Livestock development has been un-derfunded, with government mainly foc-using on food production to ensure food security after agricultural production drastically decli-ned resulting in huge grain imports.
During his 2012 National Budget pre-sentation, Finance Minister Tendai Biti revealed that the government would avail US$2,5 million in 2011 for livestock production through Agribank, which wo-uld add US$2,5 million to give a total of US$5 million for the sector.
"This will be complemented by additional resources by the banking system. In previous bud-gets, government has focused more on supporting production of food crops such as maize and wheat, with little attention to livestock," Biti said.
In 2011 and 2012, beef production is projected to marginally grow by 0,5 percent and 0,1 percent respectively from 0,2 percent in 2010.
However the sector has potential to grow over five percent, with the potential to support the canning and leather industries, among others.
In July this year, government signed a deal with Botswana which revived operations at CSC Bulawayo abattoirs with at least 1?000 beasts being slaughtered daily. The signed memorandum of understanding with Botswana allowed the importation of about 45?000 cattle.
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