Nyasha Marumbi
MASVINGO – The local chapter of international charitable NGOs confederation, Oxfam is working to reduce extreme poverty among the most disadvantaged sections of society by helping livestock farmers to better manage risks.
At a disaster risk reduction dialogue held in Masvingo last week, Oxfam led discussions on how best farmers can prevent livestock loss in light of the many obstacles associated with the business.
Some outstanding risks faced by livestock farmers include droughts and such diseases as foot and mouth as well as anthrax.
Oxfam Zimbabwe spokesperson Innocent Katsande said government and partners in other sectors should put in place measures that will enable farmers to get back onto their feet in the event that they lose their livestock.
“Government and its partners should build on the available natural resources like water and implement programmes that allow affected livestock farmers to quickly bounce back after a disaster. This is a better way of building the resilience capacity of farmers,” said Katsande.
He said because livestock still forms the backbone of rural sources of wealthy, it was critical that farmers are capacitated to deal with any disaster as a way of fighting extreme poverty in the country side.
“Oxfam encourages government to ensure that reliable early warning systems are put in place for known disasters like floods, droughts. Responding to disasters costs way more than investing in disasters prevention,” he said.
Farmers are urged to engage in disease surveillance and adopt measures for identification of new infections and changes to existing ones.
Attendants called upon the government and its partners to provide impoverished communities with the tools, education and support they need to improve their welfare.local
