Govt set up drought mitigation centre

CLOUDINE MATOLA

Government has set up a drought mitigation command centre to track livestock well-being  and avert any  losses due to drought, Business times can report.

It comes after President Emmerson Mnangagwa in April declared a state of disaster due to  El Nino induced drought.

The development was revealed by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Professor Obert Jiri.

“We have now established the drought mitigation command center, which is what we want the nation to know that we now have this drought mitigation command center particularly to attend to livestock issues.

So this is really a whole of government approach which knows no ministry, knows no department to ensure a focused approach to saving livestock out there during this lean season.

“We want to say that no livestock must die under our watch. We are seeing that out there some livestock are already dying. And this is why this is a clarion call to ensure that we arrest the succumbing of livestock to drought. And so this drought mitigation command center is there to track dire and critical wards.

“We know that the words out there, they are in different proportions of challenges. So we wanted this drought command center to try to do those critical wards and ensure that we attend to them. Number two, this center must establish the agent needs in each of the critical words.

So we must know how much water is there, how many livestock are there, and how much feed is left in those critical wards.

This center must also liaise with the focal person in each word,” Prof Jiri said.