‘OPPORTUNITY FOR LOCAL FARMERS AMID IMPORTS BAN’

MBABANE – Following the ban on importation of cloven hoofed animals and their products from South Africa, ESNAU has urged local farmers to make use of the market opportunity.

ESNAU stands for Eswatini National Agricultural Union; an apex body of farmer organisations in the kingdom that safe guards the interests of farmers through advocacy and capacity building.The Ministry of Agriculture issued a statement on Monday, which announced the ban on importation of live cloven hooved animals and their fresh products from SA and the movement of such animals and their products originating from SA and transiting through Botswana. According to Wikipedia.com,  a cloven hoof, cleft hoof, divided hoof or split hoof is a hoof split into two toes.

This is found on members of the mammalian order Artiodactyla. Examples of mammals that possess this type of hoof are cattle, deer, pigs, antelopes, gazelles, goats and sheep.Another ban that was imposed was the importation of veldt grass, bedding and manure contaminated products and vehicles. The ban was with immediate effect as of Monday (May 31) and since then, all permits issued with respect to the aforementioned products.This is as a result of a foot and mouth disease outbreak that was detected in cattle in Mtubatuba, south of KwaZulu –Natal in the neighbouring country.  Land Reform and Rural Development Department Spokesperson Reggie Ngcobo urged farmers to restrict the movement of their cattle in an effort to curb the spread of the disease.

Spread

“We urge our farmers in an effort to prevent further spread of the disease. While the extent of the outbreak is being determined, an immediate temporary standstill of all cloven-hoofed animals, including livestock and game; has been imposed in the District Municipalities of King Cetshwayo and UMkhanyakude, as well as the Local Municipalities of Nongoma, Ulundi and Pongola in the Zululand District Municipality. No movement of live cloven-hoofed animals is allowed into and out of or through these districts,” says Ngcobo.However, a team of experts from that country are still busy with investigations to determine the extent of the outbreak.

Meanwhile ENSAU Executive Director Lwazi Mamba stated that this meant more business for local farmers. “As ESNAU, we would like to encourage local farmers to take this opportunity as the demand for beef products would now be high locally. As farmers, we need to take advantage of the market gap such that if we supply the local market adequately and profitably, there won’t be any need for the local market to import same products once the ban is lifted” he said. He went on to say that this would not be an easy task to supply some of the processed products as it would take a lot of time to establish some of the plants since most of the infrastructure was not available locally.

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