OVER SOWING THE RANGELANDS - A SUCCESS STORY FROM KATETE

Some members of Bombwe Communal Rangeland in Katete, in 

session with their area extensions service officer

Much of Zambia’s rangeland are being depleted mainly due to human activity. For smallholder livestock farmers, this has translated into limited grazing land for their livestock and consequently diminishing nutrition levels most especially during the 7 month dry period of May to November.

In Bombwe area of Katete district, smallholder livestock farmers are actively working to establish a sustainable communal grazing system through which they believe they will improve the nutrition and consequently the value of their livestock.

Tayo Phiri is a smallholder livestock farmer in the area. He explained that livestock farmers in Bombwe area began to notice, from their available markets, that the value of their livestock depended on the quality of their livestock. As such, Bombwe community gradually accepted the fact that, among other important health interventions, improving the quality of their livestock required proactive efforts towards providing good animal nutrition all year round.

 “We first raised concerns about our livestock nutrition to the District Fisheries and Livestock offices and then we proceeded to request for land from our chief for us to establish a rangeland so that our livestock could have nutritious grazing land during the dry seasons,” Tayo said.

Bombwe Communal Rangeland is one of similar initiatives that the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock - through its Enhanced Smallholder Livestock Investment Program (E-SLIP) - has supported in a bid to promote sustainable livestock food resources.

Tayo said that through E-SLIP, farmers were being sensitized on the importance of rangeland management and general natural resource conservation.

Delecina Banda is another member of Bombwe Communal Rangeland group. She adds that from the activities being conducted on communal rangeland, farmers were gradually appreciating the need to revamp their existing rangeland as one way of creating affordable livestock nutrition.

“I was motivated to join [Bombwe Communal Rangeland] group because I am a livestock farmer and would like to improve the quality of my livestock,” Delecina said.

Delecina owns cattle, pigs, goats and chickens. She is a 67 year old single mother who jokes that she also takes care of “human livestock” in form of her eleven children whom she fends for through her farming activities. As such she is keen on ensuring that she learns what she can to improve her livestock management skills.

Delecina Banda examining the progress of the 
red sun hemp the group  recently sowed

One notable success of this initiative is that some farmers are beginning to adopt what their learning from the rangeland into their own fields. 

Delecina is among those farmers. She said that she has since planted a kilogram of velvet beans and a kilogram sun hemp on her own farm.

“What we do at the communal rangeland site to me is just a demo. So I decided to start replicating what I was learning to my own field so that my animals will have easier access to food and won’t stray far from my farm in search of grazing land,” Delecina said.

Through Bombwe Communal Rangeland, farmers are sensitizing their communities on how the success of their farming activities depends on the efficient use of their natural resources. In this way, the group believes that their efforts in over sowing their rangelands will have lasting and positive impact.