One of the major contributors to under-development of the livestock sector in Zambia has been the failure to equate it to business, Agriculture Minister Dora Siliya has said.
Speaking at a high level panel discussion in Berlin, Germany, Ms. Siliya said the livestock sector in Zambia has for far too long been a traditional affair where keeping animals has simply been seen as a way of life.
“We are at that level where we have challenges of looking at livestock in a very traditional manner making it as our biggest challenge the change of mindset so that keeping animals is viewed as a business which can create jobs and improve livelihoods”, said Ms Siliya.
On its part, Ms. Siliya said the Zambian government has began providing a subsidy to livestock farmers for their pesticides in the same way it has provided for their crop counterparts.
She noted that the mindset of livestock owners has always been that it was the responsibility of government to take care of their animals when they were threatened by disease.
“It is our desire to see this mindset change so that we switch it to that of business”, the Agriculture Minister told a panel discussion called by the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture, GFFA, to discuss livestock sustainability held at the City Cube of Messe Berlin.
Ms. Siliya said the livestock industry in Zambia could flourish because there was a huge market in the southern and eastern African region with a combined population of about 500 to 600 million people, a point she made in an apparent response to constant linkages of the livestock market to Europe with its own standards for imports.
“While Zambia’s population is only about 15 million, we are in a region of over 600 million people with the potential to export in the region and have backward and forward linkages that come along with job creation”, said Ms Siliya.
What Zambia needs, the Minister said was support in the area of research and development along with best practices.
She noted that with the advent of technology, it should be possible to share knowledge around livestock management especially with rural areas at lower cost.
“We have done this with crop production where we have created an ecosystem using technology. We can replicate this at a country level, at a regional level and learn best practices from New Zealand as well as Europe”, said Ms. Siliya.
The Agriculture Minister reminded the panel that consisted of the EU, New Zealand, a Kenya-based Research center and the Food and Agricultural Organization and the audience of over 200 million
observers that Zambia and Africa as a whole were not major contributors to the forces that have led to climate change.
However, Ms Siliya said, “we are willing to leverage our place in the international community so that as we participate and plan in advance for the impact of climate change using the funds that are available for climate change in the international community, we do so careful not to disadvantage our people”.
Currently, Zambia has 5 million heads of cattle smaller than Tanzania and Botswana, 190 million poultry and 1.3 million pigs.
In terms of consumption, Zambians eat 12Kgs of beef per year per person, 64 eggs per year and 19 liters of milk per year.
From the perspective of sector organization, Zambia has 1.8 million households that on average own two cows per family.
In terms of actual enterprises, for beef, the country only has seven of them.
Agriculture has always been a business. Only politicians see it as traditional and start setting prices. You cannot be giving fertilizer to farmers every year without making them pay for it.
Some of us, knew that already. But where is minister of livestock katabo? Why is she crossing her jurisdiction of providing seed and fertiliser to the farmers.
Dora Weuifulila, don’t be shy, just say: Farmers need visit HH farms to learn livestock business.
The one who wrote that speech or paper for Dora mixed a lot of content; Is she acting as Minister of Livestock and Fisheries or just strayed into that forum?
Of great importance is that Livestock farming is an Agricultural activity – we call it Animal Husbandry, whoever created this ministry did not know what he was doing, hence what we are witnessing. Next will be Ministry of E-Voucher, Ministry of Fertilizer, Ministry of Smallholder farmers, Ministry of Smart Farming etc. Lets think of our challenges and create POLICY ACTION FULCRUMS to deal with these economic sector paradigm
PF going to beg under the guise of Animal husbandry.
Please Germany dont give money to these PF fukcers.
One of the major contributors to under-development of the agriculture and livestock sectors in Zambia has been the failure to appoint a professional minister for the agriculture portfolio, Lusaka times bloggers have said.
…if only she could remove that chi WIG mwebantu, awe mwandi.
I CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHY BLACK (PEOPLE) WANT TO LOOK LIKE WHITE WOMEN (PEOPLE).
Madame and when did you learn that “livestock is business”?
Did you and your fellow Cabinet members always blab that certain very successful businessman has become rich due to “illegalities in privatization” and not to his “livestock business”?
Finally she is telling pf cadres like njimbu that you don’t make money through privatisation but try livestock business.
Dora Siliti, she is failure on E voucher. Why not fire her. She is not capable of doing this task . She is a let down for the farmers. And because Koswe mumpoto, has got not backyard garden . He will still keep her. Shame to pfools.
Zambia Airways was a business too but you GRZ mandarins turned it into a political football where nonperformers were rewarded with “team striker” airtickets.
Even church-extortionists, Prostitution, Homosexuality and Free-Masonry are forms of illegal but money spinning business ventures
You ministers, MPs and senior civil servants are traveling too much wasting the little resources for poor zambians. STOP IT.
This statement from her literally makes minister of livestock deputy minister a position that no longer exist, or she is simply saying she is able to handle the all agricultural ministry no need for a minister of livestock.
Nearly all women in Lungu’s cabinet starting from Inonge, Luo, the Katangese speem chamber above etc wear wigs, why? What are they hiding on their tulukobo? I hear Dora has a lump on the head where Folotiya’s instrument once landed.
Most Zambian women think they look beautiful with those hideous things on their heads..its just laziness and lack of conscious….only older women with thinning hair can be excused.
This was after Dora wet the bed after a drinking spree as she often did. Even now ka, kala itundawila kaKoswe Mumphoto nga kanwa chibuku na Jameson.
Your lack of respect for others (which means you have no self respect either) is disturbing. If you don’t have the brains or intelligence to debate on the internet, just stay away. Simple.
you have no manners Sir, not even bad ones; WORST ones. ngabalikukana just move forward and look at other alternatives. may God deliver you
Shame on Zambia ,the small country of New Zealand exports US$ 20b worth of agricultural products per year and even Kenya exports milk to Zambia even though they’ve got less arable land than Zed.Don’t even start with dirty milk standards of Zambian farmers and our ministry of agriculture asleep.
The average Zambian Farmer can not export anything livestock as our cattle is not up to standard…
The problem with this GRZ is because they say they have created an enabling environment and after token efforts to train locals they then leave everything ….
Training , innovation and sanitazation is a continuous process. You just don’t leave everything to NGOs after your token starts
A great help to small scale poultry farmers and families is for GRZ to engage UNZA to design a small package of chicken house and feeding apparatus with solar, with training, to cater for small scale farmers with maybe a 1/2 Acre of land or even less.
Fellow bloggers Insults directed to a person reduce your argument to nothing and make you appear immature. Place your arguments on issues affecting the nation.
Dora is a non performing Minister who has destroyed farming in Zambia that is a fact, her actions on the failure of the Maize floor price has led to less production and will see us face a food crisis this coming year.
Now the nation is facing a drought what actions is this minister taking to address this challenge? To the powers that be please release her if she would rather travel to Germany (for a meeting that the ambassador couldve attended on her behalf) instead of checking on farmers in Southern, Lusaka and Western whose crop is failing because of no rain.
How can she decide maize floor price there is no money and all of it was spent last year to dupe voters!!
Reading her statement again we are looking to international funds. When will we learn to utilise our own resources and that includes university graduatez.
So each zambian eats only 1and a haly eggs a week. Where does she get these stats. Also lt you said that the indaba had 200 million observers, must be a big venue, wpuld it be 200million viewers if it was televised.
Lt can you actually research before you print, figures like that are to impress the nation to make us look big boys in the world, which we are not evidenced by our incessant begging from the whites we dont want. Hypocrisy at its best
You mean SANITATION or product STANDARDIZATION?
Sensitization….and standardization…..
Design a standidized package for families and small subsistance farmers to rare chickens which could then be sold to co-ops to supply bigger retailers….the design should empower and engage UNZA and Zambian experts with all materials made in zambia …that is the key to enhancing local manufacturing and production…
I was hoping to hear something said about the international interests of corporations like Monsanto and Bayer, who aim to monopolize the global food sector with their genetically modified seeds. This would have detrimental impacts on millions of small scale farmers in Africa, leading to less food sovereignty, threatening people’s health and destroying their economies.
Instead of worrying about climate change, we should be more worried about these corporations and speak out against them at such international meetings. If we fail to safeguard our interests, they will always be the winners and our small farmers will always be the losers. Our future generations will remain dependents on food production and nutrition that is centered on poisons and genes for short-term profits.
Let’s…
Let’s puts our people and our environment first!
Nobody has stopped Zambians from starting their own Monsanto ,Cargill ,Unilever,Bayer etc
Don’t punish/hate folks for their success.
Its already too late for that …your politicians signed contracts with big business years ago in exchange for a few coins.
Some pastoral families in the South keep animals just for prestige and polygamy. I don’t understand why a person with over 400 animals would not afford a toothbrush. A Tonga would refuse to sell 1 animal to buy coartem to treat his son but would be willing to slaughter over 5 to mourn him! Some people boast of over 3,000 animals to their credit in Namwala and yet sleep in grass thatched houses and wear tatters. They would rather pay 7 animals to take a teenager as a tenth wife but refuse to improve their well-being. What a waste!
Under kk a lot animal research stations (especially for cattle and goats) were set up in almost all parts of the country, alas for some people the only thing that was on their heads was UMUNANI.
Minister its good comments like that coming from u, however, show leadership, show the way, lead by example then u ll understand challenges faced better.
Government should find viable ventures where to spend money to eg. Mechanization through tractor and implements provided to farmers so that they graduate seek guidance botswana did that and moat farmers are in the group of either emergent or commercial farmers.
Empower farmers with livestock and better services to improve there breeds to fully realise that indeed livestock rearing is a business .
Government is using collosal sums of money each year on fisp imagine K1700 on each farmer against the farmers contribution of K 400 the practice is good for gaining votes but not viable in form of business. Before fisp farming was taking…
@7.1 Nine Chale,
Respect is earned you *****! It’s been well over half a century since we became independent and a whole entire cabinet minister goes to Deutscheland to ask for investment in such foolish areas we ought to know better to invent ourselves and you reckon it’s proper to waste respect on such a waste of space. Look at Lungu, the scum is fully alcoholic and wholly bereft of any wisdom, and in your stupidity you reckon just because he is president he must be shown respect. The wealth of stupidity in Zambia is wholly gutless!
Sometimes one is honestly given to wonder why god almighty endowed Zambians with such a colossal wealth of stupidity. And it’s all allied to tribal bigotry! Imagine Kaizer Zulu, a lab technician buying a jet plane. And abena Nine Chale think “respect”, awe sure Chale ubunangwa uleke, alah!
Until such a time that we awaken from our slumber and call these politicians whose vision is only to loot, Zambia is doomed! Where else in the world can you find ministers like Lusambo or presidential advisors like Kaizer? Only in the Babylonia of Zambia.
Or else take the easy way out and join (PF) to become president or minister and think like a “con WO-MAN