Livestock management reviving ecosystem

Lazarus Sauti

Zimbabwe is an agriculture-based nation and livestock sector is an integral component of it, where livestock production activities like feeding, watering, milking and house-level processing are performed by girls and women, a fact supported by Women and Land in Zimbabwe, which adds that women constitute 52 percent of the country’s population and provide more than 70 percent of agriculture production, food security and nutrition from household to national level.

Despite extensive involvement as well as contribution of these women, considerable gender inequalities still exist in access to technologies, information, credit, inputs and services due to disparities in ownership of productive assets such as land and livestock.

“Ownership, as well as control of land and livestock in Zimbabwe is still dominated by men thanks to prejudiced cultural practices,” says Mirirai Mutarara, a villager from Chisuko community in Chimanimani.

Gender activist, Anoziva Marindire, concurs: “It is sad to note that in this age of civilisation, women are still treated as second class citizens. They are not allowed to own livestock due to useless cultural practices and this is extremely constraining their fundamental human rights.”

Nevertheless, women in Chisuko community and other rural areas are defying cultural norms by taking a lead in livestock management, thanks to a project initiated by Participatory Ecological Land Use Management Association (PELUM) partners, Towards Sustainable Use of Resources Organisation (TSURO) Trust in cooperation with the Chikukwa Ecological Land Use Community Trust (CELUCT).

The purpose-in-life of the project, code-named ‘Holistic Land and Livestock Management’, is to use livestock to restore degraded land by harnessing the power of their hooves to break up hard ground for air and water to penetrate.

Breaking the soil crust eases runoff, and encourages water percolation that in turn recharges underground water.

Beneficiary, Junior Nezandoni, who had lost five cattle from stock theft before joining the project, applauds TSURO Trust and CELUCT, saying the programme strengthens rural women’s capacity to not to manage land, but to own as well as control livestock.

“Thanks to TSURO Trust and CELUCT for their product, my animals are now safe,” she says. “They are now in good condition since we always move our livestock to fresh grazing areas and leave enough time for the other areas to recover.”

Nezandoni also says she is paid for herding her cattle which are part of the Chisuko community herd, a move that is helping her to buy food, medicine as well as pay fees for her children.

Another beneficiary, Ester Matirekwe (73), says her life changed a lot since she adopted the Holistic Planned Grazing Scheme in 2012.

“Before joining the project, I faced my challenged, but that’s history now,” she says, adding that her cattle are healthy and herded collectively using a grazing plan designed by the community.

Stockowners, asserts Matirekwe, pay a monthly contribution of US$1 per animal and an additional US$4 per household.

Elizabeth Sunguro, who owns five head of cattle together with her husband, says the project also involves animal impacting which is done using livestock and a mobile kraal.

“Livestock are penned in a mobile kraal during the night on a portion of the field for about seven days before moved to another site,” she says.

Sunguro adds: “Because of livestock impacting, my fields are fertilised and more productive; I am harvesting enough food for consumption and selling. For instance, before impacting, I used to harvest around six X 50kgs of maize, but last year I managed to harvest 12 X 50kgs of maize.”

Gertrude Pswarayi of PELUM believes the Holistic Land and Livestock Management Programme is restoring ecosystem in rural areas since livestock help increase forage, improve soils, as well as recharge underground water bodies.