TREAT LIVESTOCK LIKE YOU DO YOUR FAMILY - KING

SIDVOKODVO – Farmers should treat and take care of their livestock the same way they do to their brothers and sisters in order to get the best out of it.

These were the words of His Majesty King Mswati III when he officially opened the Old Mutual Swaziland Agrifund project at Sidvokodvo.
His Majesty said one would wonder why Swaziland was faced with a shortage of milk yet the nation had a lot of cattle. He said the challenge was the traditional ways Swazis use to rear and milk cattle.
“We usually tie both hind legs and sometimes beat the cow while driving it to be milked. This makes it uncomfortable, spiritually depressed and unhappy to give out milk willingly. That is why sometimes the cattle kick the bucket and spill the milk.”

Making an example of what happens in Asia, he said animals were massaged, given beer to drink, music played so that it dances and the product they get was at high level.
Sophisticated
“It is time for Swazis to get sophisticated ways like this farm. This farm should be an eye opener and Swazis should come to learn best practices on how to rear and milk dairy cows.”
The King said the project was in line with the national goal of food security in the country and its scale was in line with the country’s vision of attaining First World status by 2022 because of the mechanism put in place.

He then challenged more Swazis to join the partnership so that such farms could be established in all the four regions of the country. Such a move would help local farmers to sell their milk to the farm because of the good storage facilities and neighbouring countries could bring theirs to Swaziland and as a result, sufficient milk could be achieved.
His Majesty emphasised that food sufficiency was the country’s pillar of strength. He said coming from a severe drought that affected food production capacity and destroying livestock, the nation had a huge gap to fill in repositioning the agricultural value chain.

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