LIVESTOCK POLICIES SHOULD BE BASED ON EMPIRICAL DATA By Natasha Mhango

Ministry of National Planning Permanent Secretary Mushuma Mulenga
and; Fisheries and Livestock Permanent Secretary Dr. David Shamulenge
during the official dissemination of the census results

The livestock and aquaculture sub-sectors continue to face a number of challenges that are slowing down their growth. In 2017, a report by the Committee on Agriculture, Lands and Natural Resources that was presented to Parliament, attributed a knowledge gap and consequently low livestock productivity to inadequate research that would enable improved technologies and animal husbandry practices.

 The report acknowledged that the livestock sub-sector was under exploited and yet also a very important part of the agricultural economy. Later in the year, K50 million was disbursed to conduct a livestock and aquaculture census – an exercise that had never been carried out since the 1970s.

This was the first step towards assessing the potential of the livestock and fisheries subsector, respectively,
as well as a benchmark through which the performance of both sub-sectors could be adequately measured in future.

On June 14^th, the Central Statistics Office, officially disseminated a summary of the census results and the report revealed statistics that are key in addressing the challenges in the livestock sub-sector as well enabling better informed decision-making.

Speaking during the launch of the results Fisheries and Livestock Ministry Permanent Secretary, David Shamulenge, said he hoped that future surveys would be conducted regularly in order to have a trend of livestock and aquaculture statistics.

“The statistical information from this census will be used as the basis for effective planning and policy formulation. In addition, the results of the 2017/2018 Livestock and Aquaculture census will form a baseline on which future livestock and aquaculture census and surveys will be built on,” Dr. Shamulenge said.

The Census which was conducted by the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock in collaboration with the Central Statistical Office(CSO), commenced in January 2018 January countrywide with the financial support from the European Union(E.U), the African Development Bank(ADB) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development(IFAD).

The Report broke down the statistics into two categories: household statistics and establishment (ie registered entity) statistics.

The total number of cattle population according to these recent statistics stood at 3,714,667 – out of which 3,474,095 are reared in households and 240,572 are reared in establishments. For goats and sheep, the total population stood at 3,583,696 and 170,262 respectively.

The Southern province recorded the highest population of cattle, goats and sheep population from households while from establishments, the Central province recorded the highest number of cattle and goat population in establishments. With regard to the pig population the Eastern population the highest population from households while Lusaka province had the highest.

Southern province also recorded the highest Village Chicken population from both household and establishment - accounting for 20.5% of the national stock while Lusaka had the highest Layer chicken population from household and establishment - accounting for 52.3% of the national stock.

Speaking during the launch, Central Statistical Office Acting Director, Goodson Sinyenga, said that in promoting the growth of the fisheries and livestock sub-sectors, it was important that policies which govern them were anchored on credible statistics.

“To the best of our ability, we undertook this very important but rather technical survey with the support of technocrats from the Ministry responsible for fisheries and livestock…The report is work in progress because we needed to undertake an internal review because of the complexity of the methodology that we had used to collect this information,” Mr. Sinyenga said.

In view of the lucrative export deal in which Saudi Arabia is requesting 1 million goats, it was also disclosed that the Saudi government has also expressed interest in importing beef from Zambia. It is therefore also important to ensure that sound decision are made based on empirical evidence.

While the survey revealed detailed statistics on the livestock population, a study into Zambia’s livestock consumption patterns is yet to be undertaken.

“This survey was capturing production rather than consumption,” Mr. Nkandu Kabibwa from the CSO emphasised.

In his closing remarks, Dr. Shamulenge said that he hoped that the 2017/18 livestock and aquaculture census was the baseline regular sruveys that would enable the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock measure their performance in enhancing the growth of the two sub-sectors.

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