PASSING-ON THE GIFT: HOW LIVESTOCK FARMERS ARE GROWING THEIR GOAT POPULATION

Ackson Muwaya -  received 2 goats through ESLIP and now has 11

As the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock continues to roll-out its livestock stocking and restocking exercise countrywide, Fisheries & Livestock Minister, Prof. Nkandu Luo has continued to take keen interest in the activity and in most cases has graced the official hand-over of various livestock to the rural beneficiary households.

In recent months, the Minster has been reminding farmers of the spirit of Ubuntu – an African philosophy which emphasizes that “I AM BECAUSE WE ARE.” The characteristics of this philosophy include sharing resources and working together to uplift each other and prosper as a collective unit.

Through this spirit of Ubuntu, the sustainability of the stocking and restocking exercise is being assured through a practice that is known as passing-on the gift or simply pass-on.

This practice requires that farmers who have received livestock from the Ministry give the offspring of that livestock to a next set of beneficiaries who are also expected to “pass-on”  that offspring to other beneficiaries and hence the intervention is kept going.

The pass-on is also one way that the beneficiaries pay for the livestock packages that they have received.

Maka Multipurpose Cooperative in Sesheke, Western Province; and Tuisunge Cooperative in Kalulushi, Copperbelt Province were among the first farming groups in their respective provinces, to participate in the livestock restocking exercise which is being implemented by the Enhanced Smallholder Livestock Investment Program (E-SLIP).

They are also among the first farming groups to successfully pass-on the livestock they have received and can be considered as testimonies that the pass-on practice can help build other rural households.

Maka Cooperative - which was originally involved in fodder production through an earlier intervention of an agribusiness organization called Land O’ Lakes - was gifted with 100 goats as Parent stock from E-SLIP in 2018. Today, the group has successfully passed-on 100 goat offsprings to a new beneficiaries.

Maka Cooperative Chairperson, Reuben Mwananyambe, explained that the Cooperative first underwent a number of trainings facilitated by E-SLIP through which beneficiary farmers were taught how to properly rear and manage small livestock as well as skills in livestock marketing. After completing the trainings, the beneficiaries were given 5 goats each.

“Our contract [stated] that if you get 5 goats, you must pass-on 5 goats…For this [first] pass-on we had 80 she-goats and 20 he-goats,” Reuben said.

With those ratios, the Cooperative was able to give the new group of beneficiaries a set of 5 goats each which comprised of 4 females and 1 male.

In like manner, Tuisunge Cooperative in Kalulushi district also recorded 100% pass-on as all the selected beneficiary farmers who received 2 goats each were able to pass-on 2 goats each to the next phase of beneficiaries.

One thing that made the pass-on successful was that members of Maka and Tuisunge cooperatives regularly monitored the beneficiaries’ management of the goats and as such were able to attend to animal health needs hastily.

Maka Cooperative, in particular, has established a community animal health fund which goes to the maintenance of the goats. All applicants are expected to pay K400 each and 10% of this must be made as a down payment as a prerequisite for receiving goats under the restocking exercise. The beneficiaries were expected to finish paying off the rest of the fee within a stipulated period.

This pass-on exercise is having some observable outcomes which both Maka and Tuinsunge Cooperatives are appreciating. One of them is a surge in the cooperative membership.

“Any member of the community who is interested in receiving goats can come and apply but the moment he/she does, [they’ll] be given conditions, first of which includes that he[or she] must become a member of the Cooperative,” Reuben said.

Increased cooperative membership translates into to more funds and more human resource for cooperatives to diversify their operations and improve the livelihoods of more farming households.

Belt Mupeta is among the new cooperative members and a beneficiary from the livestock pass-on under Tuisunge cooperative. She disclosed that she was compelled to join the cooperative in order to benefit from the livestock stocking and restocking exercise.

“I was admiring how the first beneficiaries quickly began to enjoy increased incomes in their homes. Goats are easy to sell quickly and they can be helping me sort out bills like school fees…So I paid membership fee and joined the cooperative; and I was given 2 goats,” Belt said.

 

Belt Mupeta - a beneficiery from the goat pass-on from Tuisunge Cooperative in Kalulushi

A spill-off effect of this growing togetherness that comes with the growth of cooperative movement, has been knowledge sharing which has stimulated a change in mindset and attitude towards the rearing of small livestock as a business.

While farmers in Sesheke admitted that they viewed small livestock such as goats as simply food, the beneficiaries in Kalulushi also admitted that they thought goats were difficult to manage. However, their experience under the stocking and restocking exercise has taught them that goat farming can be a lucrative business.

Tuisunge Cooperative member, Stephen Lungu, is a graduate farmer who received 2 goats through the E-SLIP livestock intervention in 2018, and now has 5 goats.

He explained that initially, some farmers declined to participate in the exercise because it was a widely held belief that goats were difficult to rear.

“Most farmers here were reluctant to receive the first goats which were given because they were scared that goats are difficult to keep. But fear is death and so I decided to face my fears and be the first to receive the goats. I can say that if we adhere to what we were taught in the [E-SLIP] trainings, then goat rearing is not so hard,” Stephen said.

He added that he could already foresee the quick returns which are realized in goat farming and as such he is planning on extending the size of his goat house to accommodate more goats.

“I have heard the government talk a lot about a demand for goats in Saudi Arabia so I want to make sure that when that time comes, I’ll be among the suppliers of goats,” Stephen added.

Stephen Lungu poses with his goats in a the housing he constructed after his training

He advised new beneficiaries from the recent pass-on to put into practice the knowledge they had acquired in the trainings in order to catalyze the growth of the goat population grow.

Sesheke and Kalulushi currently stand out as the notable success stories that are showing that the practice of pass-on is an effective avenue for sustainability of the Project.

“With goats and this issue of pass-on - whether E-SLIP goes for good - we can call anyone to witness that we’ll still be doing this even come 2025,” Reuben exclaimed.

Through the pass-on practice, cooperatives can ensure the sustainability of the livestock stocking and restocking exercise can be assured and vibrant livestock production and productivity systems can be established.