By VIOLET MENGO
Ms Edith Nawakwi, a livestock farmer of Lusaka West, says the outbreak of the African swine flu has devastated the already pressed and cash-strapped small-scale farming community in Zambia, which includes herself.
The outbreak has already exerted extreme pressure on pork supplies in Lusaka and other towns forcing restaurants in some cases to remove pork from their menus as supply continues to dwindle.
Ms Nawakwi, who is also Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) president, said the small-scale farmers, who are composed mainly of people whose main source of income is pig farming, have been left with no alternative livelihood following the ban aimed at curbing the spread of the deadly virus.
Speaking in an interview in Lusaka yesterday, she appealed to Government to expeditiously compensate the affected farmers so that they can restart their pig rearing.
“If you observed the rate at which the pigs were dying, it was very fast. I am happy that the ban was enforced, it is legal and it should be followed by all pig farmers because it is the only way to come out of this crisis,” Ms Nawakwi said.
The FDD president blamed the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock for having aggravated the situation through poor response to tragedies and also for not involving the affected farmers in coming up with modes of compensation.
“The veterinary department responded to the farmers’ crisis after four weeks of reporting, this made it very difficult to save any pigs from the disease,” she said.
Ms Nawakwi, who started pig farming more than 10 years ago and became one of the major players in the sector, said she was at the time of the ban doing very well in pig farming and at the point of building a larger factory to help small-scale farmers.
“The outbreak of swine fever on the farm has brought us to our knees, there’s not even one animal left on the farm.
I had a large flock but by the time the veterinary department responded, I had remained with 700 pigs,” she lamented.
Last month, an outbreak of African swine fever hit Lusaka, killing about 1,682 pigs prompting Government to ban the movement and processing of pigs and pig products in Lusaka to save the pig industry.
This is the third time the African swine fever has been recorded in Zambia with the immediate past outbreak recorded in 2004. The first outbreak was reported in 1994.
African swine fever is a highly contagious viral disease that can kill 95 to 100 percent of affected pigs.
Zambian farmers have complained that the ban is very expensive for them because they are feeding pigs they cannot sell.
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