In the community

Big bucks: Drought-hit Binga villagers cut poverty, poaching with larger goats

Published

2 years ago

May 4, 2022

Admin

BY BUSANI BAFANA

With worsening droughts in western Zimbabwe making it difficult to grow enough food, the farmers of the Tonga community have been relying on hunting impala, guinea fowl and other wild animals to eat and sell for income.

The farmers in Binga district know their traditional practice of “hunting for the pot” is decimating local protected wildlife and puts them at risk of being arrested for poaching, but they say they have little choice: hunt or go hungry.

“This year the rain was not good, crops did not survive in the heat, and we know food will be scarce,” said Levia Mugande from Chivwetu village.

But now she and dozens of other farmers are looking at a new way to get protein on their plates and money in their pockets: a larger breed of goat that fetches a higher price at market.

Last year, Mugande got her first Boer goat buck from the European Union-funded Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme, through her farmers’ cooperative.

The plan, she said, is to breed the buck with indigenous female goats – or does – on her farm to produce bigger offspring with higher-quality meat, which can supplement what she makes from selling chickens and rosella, the fruit of the hibiscus plant, in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city.

“I have indigenous goats that I sell twice a year to buy food and pay school fees and other needs at home,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at a community meeting near her home

“But I am looking forward to earning more money from my goats,” she added, saying her native goats usually sell for up to $20 each depending on their size.

Their larger offspring, who could grow to weigh up to 150 kilogrammes, should fetch four times as much.

The goats are part of a balancing act playing out around the world as drought-hit communities with failing crops try to make sure everyone has enough to eat without wiping out the local wildlife that is essential to a healthy ecosystem.

At the same time, the degradation of habitats due to rising temperatures is driving more wildlife onto human settlements in search of food and water, leading farmers to kill the animals.

“There are complications in balancing food availability and conservation of wildlife … which poses a threat to the crops and livestock on which (people) depend,” said Maxwell Phiri, technical assistant for the SWM project in Zimbabwe.

Launched in 2018, it has given 30 farmers in Binga one buck each of the fast-growing Boer and Kalahari goat species to breed with their indigenous females.

So far, the does who bred with the first batch of bucks have all given birth to at least two kids, Phiri said.

Farmers get the bucks for free and the monthly cost of keeping each animal is about $10 for feed and medicine.

Less poaching

The farming sector employs more than 60% of Zimbabwe’s population, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.

Binga, near the border with Zambia, has a history of insecure food supplies and incomes, in part due to waves of drought, high temperatures and erratic rainfall.

According to government data, Binga is one of Zimbabwe’s least-developed districts, ranking as the third poorest in Matabeleland North Province with a poverty rate of 88%, far above the national rural average of nearly 70 percent.

Now, with more lucrative goat breeds that could potentially bring in higher incomes for years to come, some farmers in the district have stopped relying on wildlife for their meat, said Tawanda Gonye, the district’s veterinary extension supervisor.

“The community is moving away from wildlife corridors and there is a decline in cases of farmers being arrested for poaching,” Gonye said.

Members of Natural Resource Monitors, a group of young community conservationists who act as environmental police, say they have recovered ten times fewer snares on their patrols since the project started.

“We think people realise the need to preserve wildlife, even when there is not enough food,” said Mathias Mugande, one of the monitors working in Binga’s Ward Five.

SWM programme coordinator Patrice Grimaud said the project stumbled early on, as farmers adjusted to raising the new goats, which originate in South Africa, based on training from the Department of Veterinary Services.

“Six out of the (first batch) of goats died, mainly due to a combination of eating poisonous plants they were not familiar with, pests, diseases … and poor nutrition,” he said.

Grimaud cautioned that it was too early to attribute the decline of poaching in the area solely to the goat swap.

He pointed to other strategies the SWM has introduced, such as providing farmers with portable livestock enclosures so they do not feel the need to kill wild animals to protect their goats.

The project is also encouraging farmers to look at alternative protein sources such as honey, mopane worms and tamarind, he said.

Climate adaptation

Annette Hubschle, a research fellow and expert on illegal wildlife economies at the University of Cape Town, said trying new foods was only a small step toward stopping people from hunting to ease hunger linked to climate change.

Conservation projects should also encourage communities to adapt their farming to the changing climate so they do not abandon agriculture entirely, she added.

“You cannot just bring in cattle or livestock – you have to provide the means of production,” said Hubschle.

“In the case of cattle farming, it would be kraals (enclosures), sheds and water points, while a crop farmer needs different things – access to water, equipment to soften the soil, seeds and compost.”

Mpendulo Mwiinde, a farmer from Binga’s Ward Four, said he and his peers have found it hard to give up hunting when they have so little food but are starting to understand why they should poach fewer animals.

“Wildlife is important as a future resource, even though some of the animals have destroyed our crops and threatened our livestock,” he added. – Thompson Reuters Foundation

In the community

Zambia Limits Worship Time To Two Hours To Curb Cholera

Published

3 months ago

January 12, 2024

Admin

BY AFRICANEWS

Churches across Zambia have received a mandate to restrict worship sessions to a maximum of two hours.

The directive, issued by Ndiwa Mutelo, a high-ranking official overseeing religious affairs, also prohibits the sale of perishable and ready-to-eat foods within church premises.

To further minimize the risk of disease transmission, worshippers are strongly advised to refrain from handshakes and hugs. In an official statement, Mr. Mutelo emphasized the importance of maintaining hygiene within worship centers.

Churches are now required to provide safe drinking water, designated hand washing points, and make available alcohol-based hand sanitizers to their congregants.

The urgency of these measures is underscored by the significant cholera outbreak in Zambia, with more than 7,800 reported cases since last October. Over the past 24 hours alone, the health ministry has recorded over 400 new cases and 18 fatalities.

This latest intervention aims to mitigate the impact of the cholera epidemic, emphasizing the collective responsibility of religious institutions in safeguarding public health.

SOURCE: AFRICANEWS

In the community

Lubangwe villagers walk over 30KM to access nearest clinic

Published

11 months ago

June 7, 2023

Admin

BY LWANDLE MTHUNZI

Access to primary healthcare remains a major challenge to communities in Lubangwe resettlement area in Hwange where the nearest clinic is more than 30km away for some.

Lubangwe Railway Farm 55 resettlement was established in 2000 during the country’s land reform when scores of villagers, mostly families of war veterans, were settled in the area.

Government did not construct schools and clinics and old farm buildings were converted into learning facilities.

While some schools are now available as a result, although far away from some villages, the communities remain with no health facility which makes access to health a major challenge.

The worst affected are pregnant women and people living with chronic diseases such as HIV and TB who have to regularly get their monthly allocation of life saving tablets.

Edwin Nyoni, head of village 1 said had it not been for village health workers mortality could be high for people with chronic illnesses.

“We don’t have a clinic and people walk 25km to 30km to Ndlovu clinic because most have no money for transport. We risk our lives through the wildlife infested bush to Ndlovu hence we appeal to the government to help us establish a clinic nearby. We have village health workers who assist to reduce mortality and prevent home deliveries by making sure pregnant women and the chronically ill are assisted to go to hospital,” he said.

In village 2 villagers are patiently waiting for the opening of a clinic after a building was identified for use as a health facility.

The structure has no electricity and water, said village head Joseph Munsaka.

“They promised to bring some nurses to use a building that is lying idle. They said they want to connect water and electricity and we hope this will happen soon to save lives,” he said.

Gilbert Munkuli said sometimes health authorities visit with a mobile clinic at the nearby Nyongolo primary school.

He said some of his villagers walk more than 30km because they have no money for transport making access to health difficult.

“It is more than 30km to go to Ndlovu Clinic and health workers sometimes come to Nyongolo Primary School to give tablets especially to the chronically ill. Those with money sometimes hire cars but some die at home or fail to go to hospital which worsens the burden of diseases such as TB,” he said.

Because of proximity to Hwange coal mining town where most people in Hwange worked at the Hwange Colliery Company, the burden of TB is high around the district as many families have lived in Hwange town at some stage before retiring to the rural areas.

Nesi Mpala of village 2 appealed to the government to open a clinic to save chronically ill community members.

“The clinic is far and people who seek medical attention suffer, with pregnant women and those with chronic diseases the worst affected. People living with HIV and Aids are better because health workers come to give them tablets but those with TB have to go to the clinic and struggle to travel because transport is expensive. We wish the government can give us a mobile clinic so that TB patients and pregnant women get help,” said Mpala.

Government is working on a national health policy whose vision is to ensure primary health care is accessible to all communities although the plan has been in the pipeline for many years.

Health is a critical human right and key to attainment of Sustainable Development Goals.

In the community

VFWT partners with Mvuthu villagers to tackle human-wildlife conflicts

Published

11 months ago

May 17, 2023

Admin

BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

The Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust (VFWT) has announced that they have secured funding to work with the communities of the new scheme of herding cattle, amid growing concerns of human-wildlife conflicts in the Mvuthu’s jurisdiction.

This was announced by the VFWT Community Liaison officer Bongani Dlodlo on Tuesday at a village assembly meeting in the Mvuthu area.

He said the scheme aims to reduce the continuous attack of the domestic animals, mainly the cattle by predators such as the lions.

The organisation will actively involved in various environmental issues in the area, including the introduction of mobile bomas years ago, making of chill dung to deter elephants among other rehabilitation projects.

“This will be a programme to run for three years, where we are going to create mobile kraals where the whole village, those who are willing will bring their cattle there and we will hire some willing community members above 22 years of age to look after them during the day and night,” Dlodlo said.

“We are trying to reduce the problem of your livestock getting killed and while under this scheme, we shall ensure that they get treated whenever they present some symptoms of not being well and we will also vaccinate and feed them so that they can increase the value in the market whenever you want to dispose of some of them.”

Dlodlo also added that this will be done throughout the year.

“During the off-cropping season, we will be rotating them from one field to the other so that we also mitigate the issue of poor soils this community is faced with. By this, we hope that even your yield will improve for these coming years.”

Although some at the meeting met with skepticism, Dlodlo insisted that the villagers were not under duress to let go of their cattle and that the preparatory planning and strategies to be adopted were going to be done together with the communities.

Fears were around the issue of religious beliefs around the rearing of livestock.

Other concerns were around the issue of having to walk long distances to milk cows and even having them to perform some day to day chores such as the fetching of firewood.

According to the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers, cases of human-wildlife conflicts have been increasing since 2016 by over 216 percent and Mvuthu villagers have often paid the price without compensation.

Others also queried about what will happen if their livestock gets attacked while with the hired herders and Dlodlo responded: “We will not be paying for any compensation because ours to try and help this community, but because the herders and the place of herding will be chosen by you, we hope that this will be a holistic community project where you can always check on what is happening as we work together.”