WILDBW: UNCERTAINTY, THE SILENT STRANGULATION OF THE CATTLE ECONOMY THIS FMD DEMANDS OUT OF THE BOX THINKING

Cattle are a key source of life for Batswana

Oshinka Tsiang

I met a man by accident recently, a farmer to be specific who had just come from his niece’s wedding, where as an uncle he was expected to contribute the leading cow. He contributed a truck load of cabbages instead. The Ministry of Lands and agriculture issued their latest update on the outbreak of the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Southern Botswana last Friday 15^th May. Generally I consider myself to be an eternal optimist. But from the press release, one can see that the disease continues to spread. From that perspective it’s not easy to find any glimmer of hope that the outbreak will end soon. We of course are praying that a solution should be found soon so that we can get back to eating real meat again. Before you wonder what this has to do with WILDBW, let me remind you that the hunting season is on and that includes species with cloven hoofs. Species such as buffalo, duiker, eland, gemsbok, hartebeest, impala, kudu, Lechwe and steenbok cannot be hunted in all areas, except Chobe, Ngamiland and Okavango as well as Bobirwa. With the latter you cannot take the animal meat out of the area. According to an April 2nd press release from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, “Hunting in these areas shall be restricted to only non-cloven-hoofed animals. However, all meat from such hunted animals must be disposed of at the site of the kill.” Translation, if you kill an elephant in any of the areas except Chobe, Ngamiland and Bobirwa you have to ensure that the meat is consumed at the site of the kill. I still cannot get my head around that. I am sure experts at the Ministry mean very well and have designed some ingenious way of doing that. Which brings me to a point that I have been mulling over since the outbreak of FMD was announced and every time I think of this, something turns in my stomach. I get quite agitated when I see butcheries closed, employees laid off and you go into a supermarket for meat and the price of beef is prohibitive. We hear that the only supplier of meat is the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) (H.E was spot on. At this rate, the BMC will turn a profit by the end of the year). For the poor subsistence farmers whose livelihoods depend on livestock, specifically cattle, forget about going to your kraal to raise school fees for your child, or contributing to a wedding or funeral with the only commodity that has always been the go to for such events. (They call it “modimo o o nko e metsi” (the wet nosed god) for a reason.) The thing that really irks me more than anything else is the uncertainty around the handling of this current outbreak. It’s not just the inexplicable sustained interregnum created by the lack of  appointment of a substantive Minister of Lands and Agriculture that raises doubts about the seriousness of dealing with this disease, but the rather simplistic approach to imposing a blanket ban on beef consumption. I know there will be many who will accuse me of being biased because this has always been the way we dealt with the disease in other parts of the country. Of course there is the EU market that we have to assure. I get it. But think of it for a second. In most other cases, the outbreak has always been handled with certainty. As far as I am concerned, we seem to be doing guess work here. In other outbreaks the course has always been pinned to contact with disease carrying wildlife. This is different. In most other cases, a kind of assurance always existed in the form of a projected timeline. You do not get any sense of any plan to put a date to this. We could be dealing with a phenomenon that will go on ad infinitum. Which brings me to the point I am making concerning the blanket ban. Just as with the hunters who are allowed to kill the non-cloven hoofed animals even in the midst of an FMD outbreak a solution can be sought to allow for localised use of cattle under strict monitoring in areas where the disease has not reached yet. We know for a fact that cooking meat is able to kill the FMD virus. In other words it is possible to permit localised consumption of beef. In addition, we have sufficient expertise, built over the years to detect, and contain the virus for the purposes of localised sale and slaughter of the animals. If we are really serious we do not have to impose a blanket ban and destroy lively-hoods. The BAITS system is not perfect, but it can certainly enable a good enough degree of traceability that can facilitate localised slaughter and sale. The cost of doing that can be borne by the farmers themselves. This sounds simplistic, but it is not farfetched. As we speak, Spain is experiencing an outbreak of Swine flu. The country is one of the leading exporters of pork. Their international market is affected but their local market is intact. They ensure that local consumption remains largely unaffected. This is a clear example of a system that while cognizant of the international market, puts livelihoods of its people first. We need to be bold enough to think outside the proverbial box. Of course we need the EU market, but not at the cost of strangulating livelihoods. The combined effects of the rise in the cost of living due to the rise in oil prices, the slump in diamonds sale with its consequential near collapse of our economy and the unemployment crises are for many, too heavy to take and therefore demand a creative way of dealing with this outbreak. It cannot be business as usual. Not many of us can raise truckloads of cabbage nor are we predisposed to do that when we can go to our kraals.