Fivet takes Beitbridge farmers through Herdsman Course
Ellen Mlambo
BEITBRIDGE – Fivet, a company which is into animal health products conducted a herdsman Course at Tshapfuche Aluwani Farmer Learning Centre in Beitbridge rural where experts took farmers through common animal diseases.
The workshop which was held on Saturday was facilitated by a local A1 farmer Herbert Zhou, experts from Fivet and around 60 farmers attended the course.
The key areas discussed during the workshop include January disease and other tick-borne diseases, nutrition, deworming, dipping and vaccinations.
Also present were officials from Steward Bank (Masvingo Branch), Beitbridge Veterinary Services Department and ZRP.
Fivet has eight branches countrywide and will open the ninth in Gweru soon.
One of the experts, Dr Betty Muyambo, told Two Nations that the Herdsmen Course was first introduced in Masvingo, and it was after that initiative that there was a call to do the same course for farmers in Beitbridge.
“We realised that we were getting more than 30 consults a day at our shops regarding January disease. We then saw it fit to turn this into an outreach programme where we get to more farmers with the necessary information.
“We have a wide range of animal health and nutritional products that we offer, and these range from broiler, poultry, beef, pig and dairy range. For technical services, we have a group of technical advisors under veterinary services, we have doctors at Fivet who go out to assist farmers. We also offer laboratory services,” said Dr Muyambo.
Experts who ran the course include Dr Gideon Mutema ( tick-borne and tick-borne diseases), Isheunesu Nemera (Nutrition), Dr Muyambo (vaccination) and Lincon Chingundu (drenches).
She added that Fivet is going to do business with Beitbridge residents and if there are retailers who want to stock their products, they are more than welcome.
From Steward, there was the Business Relationships Officer, Gracious Chayamiti and the Branch manager Daniel Matorera.
Chayamiti said her Bank was there to offer loans to farmers payable from one to three years.
“We have an agri-business facility that we came up with to assist farmers and those in the value chain of agri-business. We offer two types of loans; working capital and capital expenditure loans for 12-36 months. The loans have no minimum or maximum limit. They (loans) are paid in local currency at an interest rate of 45 to 50% per annum,” said Chayamiti.
A local A1 farmer who breeds Boer goats, Hebert Zhou applauded Fivet for the initiative.
“We have benefitted a lot from the program as we were taught how to look after our livestock, what vaccines to use and the time to vaccinate. We also learnt a lot about deworming and the dewormers to use. Fivet’s prices are affordable and we want to persuade them to open a branch in Beitbridge. One of our problems here, however, is stock theft as thieves are becoming complicated and they operate with syndicates,” said Zhou.
Chris Nguluvhe, a farmer at the workshop urged Government to allocate the Veterinary Services Department a budget for dipping chemicals.https://twonations.co.zw/
