Do not burn grass: Zhanda

Samuel Kadungure Farming Reporter
DEPUTY Minister of Agriculture, Cde Paddy Zhanda, has urged farmers to curb the scourge of veld fires amid revelations that at least 25 000 cattle have died due to drought this year.

Zimbabwe perennially experiences the scourge of veld fires and if not contained, it will worsen an already desperate situation leading to more livestock deaths across the country.

Zimbabwe has several laws aimed at preventing and criminalising veld fires, namely the Environmental Management Act, The Parks and Wildlife Act, the Forest Act and the Traditional Leaders Act — but veld fires remain a perennial menace.

The current drought has turned out to be the severest to hit the country since 1992, with more than 25 000 cattle reported to have died across the country due to food and water shortages and diseases.

Cde Zhanda admitted last week that the livestock situation, particularly in Matabeleland South, Masvingo and southern parts of Manicaland and Midlands was very desperate, hence the need to start anti-veld fires campaigns in farming communities across the country.

“We are trying everything possible to conscientise farmers against veld fires because it will definitely have an impact and worsen an already desperate situation. Why should farmers leave the scarce grass available to burn?” asked Cde Zhanda.

“Obviously we expect these farmers to be more concerned and fight the scourge because the impact would be immitigable, but the matter lies in the purview of another ministry, and the best we can do is to raise awareness among farmers,” said Cde Zhanda.

Zimbabwe is facing a severe drought due to the El Nino phenomenon. A similar El Nino during the 1991-1992 period killed more than a million cattle.

Cde Zhanda also appealed to livestock farmers to avoid mass cattle deaths by de-stocking because Government would struggle to assist with stock feed

Division of Livestock Production and Development (LPD) has established a grazing adequacy map to monitor cattle grazing lands whose aim is to reduce cattle mortality by quickly identifying and making assessments on how the food available can serve animals in each farming community.

Though the map it looks as if the grass is there and everything including water, in a very short space of time, people will be burning the grass.

On destocking, he said: “Those animals that we see are not in the best of conditions. We should not try to mislead ourselves and say we will feed those animals. This is our strongest advice that animals that are not in good condition in terms of the coming two/three months, let us try to de-stock and we remain with animals that we will be able to look after by putting in the feed lots.”

The United Nations World Food Program said cattle deaths so far estimated at 25 000 between October 2015 and March 2016 were expected to continue due to the drought.

Director of LPD under Livestock and Veterinary Services, Mr Bothwell Makodza, said Masvingo and Matabeleland North recorded the highest deaths, while Matabeleland South was least affected.

“We started doing the headcount of animals dying due to starvation in September 2015 and as at March 11, 2016, we have recorded 25 000 deaths of beasts due to starvation as a result of the El Niño induced drought,” said Mr Makodza.

Masvingo recorded the highest number of deaths with 12 016, while Matabeleland South had the lowest with 1 268 deaths.

“In other affected provinces, Manicaland reported 3 580 deaths, Matabeleland North reported 4 637, while Matebeleland South reported 1 268 deaths. This brings the total to 24 506, while no deaths caused by starvation have been reported post March 11, 2016,” he added.

He said despite the rainfall the country received later in the season, some low rainfall areas particularly in regions three and four were still short of adequate pastures and drinking water for livestock.

Mr Makodza said the March rains had, however, improved grazing pastures in some parts of the country, but warned farmers to desist from burning grass and instead store it for the drier season later in the year.

“I have to emphasise that the latest rains improved grazing in most parts of the country, even the availability of drinking water for animals is looking better than earlier in the season. We, however, urge farmers not to burn this bio mass and instead cut the grass and make hay for their animals,” he said.

Wild fires thrive on tinder-dry grass and research shows that the evil of veld fires is started by people that are aware of the catastrophic consequences.

The dry and warm winters, experienced over Zimbabwe, combined with abundant grass fuels and ready sources of ignition ensure that fires are a regular feature of savanna landscapes.

A joint study by the Department of Environmental Sciences, Bindura University of Science Education and Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, University of Zimbabwe traces the prominence of the vice to the land reform programme.

This means that poachers and new farmers are major drivers of these uncontrollable infernos.

The study noted that prior to the land reform programme commercial farmers occupied about 16 million hectares, resettlement farmers 3,6m ha, small-scale commercial farmers 1,4m ha and state farms 0.1m ha.

“In 2000, the Government initiated a land reform program to acquire 12,4m ha of the 16m ha in large-scale agriculture to create two new categories of farming subsectors, namely A1 and A2 farms. A total of 4,1m ha model A1 farms (average 5ha), 3,5m ha model A2 farms (average, 318ha per farmer) were established under the land reform program.

“However, of late there has been a massive increase in the incidences of uncontrolled veld fires which have inflicted substantial damage to agricultural land, national parks, indigenous forests, commercial timber plantations, rangelands and communal grazing areas. The recent increase in fire incidences has been attributed to newly resettled smallholder farmers.

“The fast track land reform program, which started in 2000 resulted in an upsurge in veld fire incidents due to poor land clearing methods by the more than 300 000 resettled small holder farmers,” noted the study published in 2013.

The major drivers include fires used for hunting, improving grazing, early burning or back burning to reduce the fuel load and negative impact of wild fires, creation of fire breaks, arson and smoking out bees during harvesting of wild honey.