Initiatives to address declining national herd announced

Farmers in Takatokwane constituency have expressed utter dismay at the nomenclature used by Members of Parliament to refer to semen imported from the USA and Australia as ‘moroto’ or urine.

Through their MP, Friction Leuwe the farmers have demanded that parliament or Minister of Agriculture, Fidelis Molao find an alternative name that is appropriate to be used in the august house.

Leuwe said this in his contribution following the statement by Molao in which he announced government initiatives meant to address the declining national herd and drive livestock production of a knowledge-based economy.

In his statement Molao also announced that “government has made a provision to waive the 2020 training fees from P330.00 per person/day to a flat registration rate of P500.00 for the entire 18-days period of the Artificial Insemination Course and P350.00 for other livestock production courses which runs for 5 days. The waiver is with immediate effect until 31st July 2026”.

Leuwe further told parliament that his constituents are also complaining about the failure to timely pay for their agricultural products that they have sold to Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB).

Leuwe said some of his constituents have been waiting for three months since their produce was taken by BAMB.

Member of Parliament for Gantsi North Samuel Brooks asked if the Ministry has taken all the precautions to ensure that either semen or bulls and cows bought from abroad will not bring any diseases that stand to compromise Botswana’s beef to the European market.

While MP for Maun, Goretetse Kekgonegile raised concern that it appears government has decided to have the training of farmers which have been fully subsidised done only at Ramatlabama instead of being spread all over the country in order for all to benefit at minimal cost.

Molao’s statement was to inform Parliament on a Cabinet decision on the semen tapping initiative and its associated fee structure and the revised semen price for locally produced semen at the National Artificial Insemination Laboratory (NAIL) and Waiver on the training fees on livestock production courses.

He said the contribution of the Agriculture sector to the national gross domestic product (GDP) has been declining to the current 2.2 percent, mainly due to decreasing agricultural productivity and poor adoption of modern technologies.

Molao said that as part of the initiative to improve the declining livestock productivity and to transform the livestock sector, the Ministry has adopted the use of modern technologies, in particular the assisted reproductive technologies

(ART).

The artificial insemination (AI) programme was revised and launched in November 2022. The National Artificial Insemination Laboratory (NAIL) at Ramatlabama is being upgraded to a centre of excellence in production and export of high quality germ plasma particularly for semen and embryos.

In addition, it is being upgraded to improve efficiency and increase production capacity from 22 500 to 8.4 million semen straws per year. The facility is expected to be completed by the year 2025.

He said generally the farming community has not taken advantage of the use of existing technologies that can be used to collect, process and store semen from their own bulls either for their own use or for sale.

The number of straws per tapping is dependent on the management and care of a bull. A bull has a potential to produce 300 to 700 semen straws per tapping, which comes to a minimum of 3600 semen straws to a maximum 8, 400 in a year for a bull tapped once a month.

Further that in closing this gap, the Ministry has developed a programme to support the farming community in collecting and processing of semen from the farmers’ bulls.

Such a programme comes with benefits that include; preservation and access to bull’s semen even beyond its lifespan, provides a business opportunity to trade in semen both locally and for export and other farmers will benefit from improving their livestock by having access to the stored semen.

“Ultimately, this will assist in improving livestock productivity and increase the cattle population”.

Molao said that government will provide the programme under different scenarios at subsidised fees effective from 1st September 2023.

(a). Private semen tapping (On Farm): This scenario involves government providing a semen tapping service at the farmer’s farm. The approved subsidised fee is P35.00.

(b). Private semen tapping (at Ramatlabama): Under this scenario the farmer brings the bull to Ramatlabama for tapping of semen and the approved service fee is P36 .00 per straw.

(c). Private Semen tapping with Quarantine (at Ramatlabama): This scenario is for registered breeders bringing their bulls to Ramatlabama for semen tapping and the approved service fee is P58.00 per straw.

Under this scenario the fee is higher due to the rigorous animal sanitary and quality control measures that need to be put in place.

Molao said that the current sale price for locally produced semen straws at NAIL of P25.00 per straw has not been revised for a long time despite the increasing cost of production of semen over the years.

The price has been increased to P30.00 per straw, with immediate effect. He said that in 2022 government introduced training fees for livestock production courses as part of cost recovery.

Following the introduction of the fees there was a drastic decline in the number of farmers that registered for training and those that trained.

Although the decline was initially attributed to the effects of the Covid 19 pandemic, the situation continues to worsen.

Further that training of farmers is an integral part of transferring new knowledge and technologies to improve livestock productivity.

Such capacity building is critical in transforming the livestock sector especially as the beef and small stock subsectors have been identified among others, as priority drivers to transform the economy to a high income status.

He said the training will open up job opportunities for youth and women among others to be inseminators. Furthermore, this will strengthen technical capacity that is integral to supporting the government initiative to improve livestock productivity. Molao said the Ministry continues to source semen to support the Revised AI programme. This year (2023) 2, 000 straws of beef semen and 2, 401 dairy sexed semen have been delivered from Switzerland while 3, 000 sexed beef straws are expected to be delivered.

He concluded by saying that Ear tags are currently out of stock, however the Ministry is in the process of procuring ear tags to ensure continuous supply.