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Livestock & Fisheries Minister,Hon Makozo Chikote, cuts the ceremonial ribbon |
The Ministry has been making deliberate efforts to increase livestock production and productivity which have included country-wide livestock stocking and restocking exercises, disease control interventions as well as the establishment of artificial insemination sites. As expected, beneficiary groups have shown their appreciation by actively participating in these interventions.
This overwhelming response, however, has highlighted the need for the government to intensify efforts towards the improvement of livestock infrastructure to complement its other interventions.
Some of the gaps in livestock value chain include insufficient access to affordable quality livestock breeds, unstable supply of vaccines which can only be sourced outside the country and poor livestock infrastructure.
This has translated into insufficient access to markets for the rural smallholder farmers.
In response to this, the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries officially launched the implementation of its Sustainable Livestock Infrastructure Management Project (SLIMP). The initiative which is predominantly financed by the African Development Bank with co-financiers being the International Fund for Agriculture Development(IFAD), the Government of the Republic of Zambia and beneficiaries; aims to contribute to the creation of sustainable commercialized livestock value chains.
Speaking when he officially launched SLIMP, Livestock and Fisheries Minster, Hon. Makozo Chikote, explained that project completion reports from previous livestock infrastructure interventions such as the Livestock Infrastructure Support Programme (LISP) and the Agriculture Sector Investment Programme (ASIP), highlighted that existing livestock infrastructures continued to be poor.
SLIMP is therefore aims at building on interventions and lessons learned from these previous livestock infrastructure interventions to enhance livestock infrastructure development, commercialization and utilization.
“The SLIMP will address the weak infrastructure management and stimulate full operationalization…It will contribute to poverty reduction through enhanced sustainable use of livestock infrastructure for improved smallholder livestock production and productivity [and] commercialization and institutional capacity building which will lead to improved household food and nutrition security; and incomes” Hon. Chikote said.
The Minister further explained that SLIMP would also significantly enhance farmer groups’ access to public and private sector services.
“The Project is expected to directly benefit 248 registered livestock keeping groups with more than 100,000 households with fully-paid membership status,” Hon. Chikote said.
He further disclosed that out of the 100,000 households, 33,600 would be female-headed.
The Project will be implemented in selected districts in Northern, Muchinga and Eastern provinces in which about 90, 000 livestock keeping households will indirectly benefit from improved livestock infrastructure and services.
To add significance to the event, the launch of SLIMP was held a Katopola Livestock Centre – one of the livestock structures that was established in 2004 with support from the African Development Bank.
But Deputy Director for the Department of Livestock Development - Mr. Young Vebetti - disclosed the structure has not been operational.
“What became common with all these sites is that when they were completed, they could not go into operation so we sat…and tried to find a way of operationalizing these centres and we engaged African Development Bank and it was agreed that there was need to put a rider project…the Sustainable Livestock Infrastructure Management Project… to [see i]t that these livestock structures were put into operation,” Mr. Vibetti said.
SLIMP comes at a time when the government has reiterated the need to make the agriculture sector the main driver of the economy. The Project is expected to not only contribute to improved management of livestock infrastructure but will also work towards improved integration of the private sector. As such, SLIMP will provide opportunities for commercialization and co-management of public infrastructure through public-private-partnerships.
Furthermore, in addition to enhancing gender equality, the effects of climate change and environmental issues have been mainstreamed into SLIMP’s implementation plan giving consideration to the contributions that livestock farming makes to greenhouse gas emissions. A key component of the Project therefore is climate resilient livestock production and productivity through which range and pasture improvement is an expected outcome.
As the demand for livestock products continue to increase, there is need for smallholder farmers to be given a boost to help them rise to the occasion and contribute to efforts towards the commercialization the livestock sub-sector.
Hence, as government makes necessary contributions through SLIMP, farmers and stakeholders in the private sector will also be expected to play their roles.
“This is transformational agenda calls for mindset change – not doing business as usual…The launch of SLIMP provides an opportunity to build consensus, establish strong coordination and partnerships to drive the transformation of the livestock sub-sector,” Hon Chikote said as he concluded his address at the launch of SLIMP.
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