Ahead of the national Department of Agriculture’s urgent foot-and-mouth indaba in Pretoria on Monday and Tuesday, the KwaZulu-Natal Agricultural Union (Kwanalu) is pointing out that the disease is tightening its potentially fatal grip on this province’s diverse livestock sector.
By Lloyd Phillips
Leaders of Kwanalu have issued a heartfelt and desperate plea for help to all public and private decision-makers heading the ongoing, but seemingly failing, fight against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in South Africa. With KwaZulu-Natal alone having approximately 172 of the reportedly 249 active cases of this disease in total nationwide, the province’s livestock owners are reportedly at their wits end.
John Steenhuisen, minister of agriculture, animal health authorities in his department, and private sector stakeholders and animal health experts in South Africa’s livestock sector are set to gather for an urgently called national indaba to seek ways forward regarding the ongoing spread of foot-and-mouth.
Ahead of this indaba, Kwanalu has yet again reiterated its call for the state to formally declare a state of disaster for FMD in KwaZulu-Natal, and for a coordinated and inclusive accompanying response.
“We are seeing intense pressure across the board,” says Sandy La Marque, Kwanalu’s chief executive officer.
“Some of the country’s most established commercial livestock operations are at risk of closure, while small-scale livestock farmers face impossible choices between following the law and feeding their families.”
A search of state and other online records reveals KwaZulu has been grappling with FMD in its domesticated livestock for over four consecutive years. The mandatory state-implemented and -managed quarantine zones around each new outbreak have also expanded proportionately.
In KwaZulu-Natal, these increasingly numerous quarantine zones have subsequently been amalgamated into a single foot-and-mouth disease management area (DMA) that now covers an estimated* 4,4 million hectares, or approximately 47% of this province’s entire surface area.
‘A Single Animal Is A Family’s Financial Lifeline’
Livestock movements out of KwaZulu-Natal’s foot-and-mouth DMA are extremely limited, as are opportunities for the estimated* 200 000 livestock owners – the vast majority of whom are small-scale farmers – within this DMA to earn an income from their animals.
A statement by Kwanalu points out that in many of KwaZulu-Natal’s rural communities, being able to sell even a single animal is often a family’s only financial lifeline. The livestock movement restrictions associated with the province’s foot-and-mouth DMA put these livestock owners in the unenviable position of having to choose between adhering to the law and thereby potentially starving, or breaking the law to survive.
“No farmer wants to break the rules, but the reality is that some are left with no choice,” says Angus Williamson, vice-president of Kwanalu and chairperson of the KwaZulu-Natal Red Meat Producers’ Organisation.
“We must remove these barriers; not with judgement but with practical help.”
Kwanalu has welcomed some of the state’s efforts, like widespread vaccinations, to try to curb the spread of foot-and-mouth in KwaZulu-Natal and other provinces. However, the union would like to see KwaZulu-Natal’s livestock owners finally become the beneficiaries of all the financial and material resources that would be unlocked were foot-and-mouth disease to be declared an official disaster in this province.
Peter-John Hassard, Kwanalu’s president, says: “Every corner of this sector is hurting. But if we work together – commercial and communal, government and private – we can slow the spread and protect every player in the value chain.”
Among its more specific proposals, Kwanalu is calling for the likes of permitting and veterinary support in rural areas, for language-specific communication of animal health protocols and best practices, and for economic relief measures for affected livestock owners at all scales.
*Estimate compiled through research and calculations conducted by the Prosus Toqan Artificial Intelligence system.
