ANIMAL GENETIC RESOURCES POLICY ISSUES IN ZAMBIA

Transcription

1 ANIMAL GENETIC RESOURCES POLICY ISSUES IN ZAMBIA Paper Presented at a Workshop Meeting to Strengthen Capacity for Developing Policies Affecting Genetic Resources, 5-7 Sept Rome, Italy. By 1 Judith C.N. Lungu (PhD) 1.0 Introduction Zambia is a landlocked country of 752,630 square kilometers with a population of about million people and an annual growth rate of 2.9%. About 45% of the population live in urban areas. The agriculture sector contributes about 11-16% of the GDP. The livestock sector contributes 35% to the agricultural GDP excluding the benefits from use of animal draft power and manure. The sector comprises of about 85% small-scale farmers (about 850,000 rural households) who utilize about 75% of the cultivated land and 15 % commercial farmers who utilize 25% of the land. The diversity of Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR) in Zambia comprise of about 2.8 million cattle, 1.2 million goats, 0.5 million pigs, 80,000 sheep, over 20 million poultry, few donkeys, rabbits, turkeys, guinea fowls, ostriches and quails. Apart from ostriches and quails that are reared exclusively by commercial farmers, the traditional sector owns the majority of Zambian animal genetic resources (83% cattle, 97% goats, 64% sheep and 90% pigs) as indigenous animals or crosses with exotics. The livestock sector provides meat, milk, eggs, hides and skins, manure and draught power, generates employment opportunities and income among rural people. The socioeconomic importance of these animals cannot be over-emphasized. Through animal draft power and manure, cattle contribute directly to increased crop production. Failure to access cattle manure in the sandy flood plains of Western Province is synonymous with crop failure as animal manure in these sands is essential for crop growth. Crop production in Southern province over the last 12 years has drastically reduced due to inadequate draft animal power. High mortalities of cattle due to tick borne diseases (especially corridor disease) have left many families in Southern Province without draft animals and unable to cultivate adequate areas of land with consequent acute food insecurity. Animals are banks on the hoof for rural people. They are converted to cash in times of emergencies especially now with introduction of Liberalization Policy in 1992 which removed free educational and free health services among other things. The last 15 years have been years of repeated droughts due to changing weather patterns. Sale of cattle, goats, pigs and chickens generate income to buy grain and sometimes these animals are 1 Judith C.N. Lungu, School of Agricultural Sciences, University of Zambia, P.O. Box Lusaka. Zambia

2 exchanged for grain thereby alleviating food insecurity. Farm animals are an integral part of sustainable development of rural Zambian people. One of the indicators of acute food insecurity and poverty in a Zambian village by a casual visitor is the absence of chickens and other livestock around the village. Chickens are the first choice of animals to be sold in times of food hunger. Households that do not own any animals are usually considered the poorest in the rural communities and those with large numbers of animals are rich members of the community. Lack of animals is associated with abject poverty and food insecurity. When food and prosperity returns to the village, presence of village scavenging chickens and other livestock are evident. AnGR are also an important component of sustainable development like plant genetic resources are and policy making issues should be identified in order to formulate policy statement that will encompass concerns of all stakeholders. This paper outlines the methodology used to identify Genetic Resources Policy making issues which include AnGR. 2.0 Genetic Resources Policy Initiative (GRPI) Phase 1 (Zambia) Zambia is participating in the Genetic Resources Policy Initiative (GRPI), an IPGRI/IDRC project involving five other countries in three regions. The main objective of GRPI project is to strengthen the capacity of national policy makers in Southern countries to develop comprehensive genetic resource policy frameworks using multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder, multidisciplinary approach. Implementation arrangements for the project (GRPI) were agreed upon through a Letter of Agreement (LOA 03/022) signed between IPGRI and Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MACO) on 24 February 2003 through the Director of Research and Specialist Services. The scope of work covered implementation of the GRPI pilot phase, Task Force (TF) work plan, which included undertaking of a policy appraisal and holding of a national workshop concerning the GRPI, Zambia Country Component. Zambia engaged in a process of stakeholder appraisal of priority genetic resources policy issues. This included first of all formation of the Task Force whose major function during the phase 1 was the implementation of the stakeholder survey aimed at collecting and analyzing data regarding genetic resources policy issues. 2.1 Formation of Task force (TF) Members of the Task Force were appointed by the Director of Research and Specialist Services on behalf of Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MACO), the hosting institution which is providing the technical secretariat for the project. The Task Force is composed of actors concerned with genetic resources policy issues. This is composed of 9 members: 3 members from government (Agriculture, Natural Resources), 2 from Parastatals (Patents, Research), 1 from University and 3 from Private sector realised through NGOs: the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU), Program Against 2

3 Malnutrition (PAM) and Traditional Health Practitioners Association of Zambia (THPAZ). 2.2 Appraisal Team Training The TF engaged a stakeholder Appraisal team of six university graduates. These had varying experiences in conducting field surveys. The Appraisal Team combined different disciplines covering agriculture, microbiology, linguistics and social sciences. The team underwent training that covered general introduction to genetic resources and familiarization with the questionnaire. It was felt necessary to give a general introduction on genetic resources as a subject so as to enable the appraisal team appreciate the issues that they would be involved in during the appraisal process. The familiarization with the questionnaire included conducting trial or mock interviews with members of the TF. A further one-day training was provided by three members of the TF covering different GRP issues. The appraisal team was subcontracted to conduct interviews with identified stakeholders. 2.3 Field Survey of Stakeholders The appraisal team was given the following terms of reference (TORs): i) Collect information on genetic resources related activities from identified stakeholders. ii) Establish the type of genetic resources policy issues that different stakeholders are involved with. iii) Identify priority genetic resources issues at national and institutional levels. iv) Identify the role of relevant stakeholders in genetic resources management and use. v) Assess the demands of different stakeholders for capacity building. vi) Analyse the information collected and compile report for submission to TF and GRPI team. Three members of the TF provided supervision to the team. The appraisal team was divided into three groups, each consisting of two persons. Each pair was given a list of stakeholders to interview. The supervisory team made appointments with stakeholders to be interviewed by the appraisal team. The field survey was conducted in two parts. The first being interviews among stakeholders located within the capital, Lusaka. The second part was the collection of information from rural communities in three areas representing the three main agroecological regions of the country on the Copperbelt, Southern and Eastern provinces. In the outlying communities those interviewed were, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives officials, Farmer groups, Traditional Leaders and special interest groups such as Women clubs. Assistance with transport and arranging meetings with groups to be interviewed was provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and Zambia National Farmers Union staff at the district. There was good cooperation from targeted people/groups. 3

4 2.4 Methodology Used for Collecting Information from Community Stakeholders The local communities and their supporting structures are considered to be important groups in the policy development process as they are the main beneficiaries on policy decisions that are made by policy makers. Participatory methodologies targeted at identified groups were used. Stakeholderr groups included the following: District level District Agricultural Extension and Research department staff District Forestry and Fisheries department staff Relevant NGOs at the district ( agriculture, forestry, fisheries etc) Other service providers District Development Committees Community level Local extension staff (agric., forestry, fisheries etc) Farmer Associations/Cooperatives NGO or service provider representatives Traditional leadership Farmer village groups (FVGs) Any local level relevant interest group (women groups etc) 2.5 Approach At the district level, interviews were conducted on individuals representing the different groups while at the community level the main method used was the Focused Group Discussions (FGD). The questions given in the questionnaire were used to guide the discussions among the groups. Selected individuals were interviewed following group discussions to verify some of the information collected where necessary. A local official working with the communities on daily basis such as the agricultural extension officer at camp level was used to facilitate the discussion. A total of 90 stakeholder representatives were interviewed, with 37 being from within Lusaka and 53 from the three communities outside Lusaka. Some farmer groups expressed lack of interest in the interviews as they had seen a number of such interviews before, most of which have had no follow up actions. It was difficult to find appropriate persons to interview in a few organizations as they were not familiar with the genetic resources issues. 2.6 Analysis The TF has partially analyzed information from stakeholder survey drawing up preliminary conclusions. After completing the analysis, a National Multi-stakeholder workshop is to be conducted in December at which GRP information, documentation and resources available will be presented. The National workshop will bring out issues that 4

5 were not captured during the survey and will lead to drawing up of proposals for country subprojects using an expanded group of TF members. Preliminary indications are that the level of awareness on genetic resources issues among stakeholders is generally low. Awareness creation should therefore be considered as one of the activities of the projects that may be agreed upon for the Zambia. 3.0 Farm Animal Genetic Resources (FAnGR) Policy Issues identified Farm animals, it has been indicated play a critical role in sustainable livelihood. Animal production should contribute to sustainable livelihood. But productivity of livestock in the traditional sector in particular is constrained by several factors such poor nutrition, poor husbandry practices, diseases among others. Low animal productivity prevent them from contributing fully to sustainable livelihood. Some of the AnGR policy issues identified in the survey as needing attention include conservation and sustainable use of indigenous breeds, animal diseases, inventory and characterization of local AnGR, AnGR human resource capacity development, trade and movement of livestock and local and external market opportunities. Indigenous breeds of cattle in Zambia are the Tonga located in Southern Province, the Ngoni in Eastern Province, the Barotse in Western Province and the Baila along the Kafue valley in Southern Province. Two major causes of threat to livestock biodiversity are indiscriminate crossbreeding activities in communal grazing areas and cattle diseases especially corridor disease (tick borne disease) which has reduced the number of cattle especially the Tonga breed in Southern Province by over 30% in the last 10 years. Sporadic outbreaks of Newcastle Disease yearly reduce sometimes exterminate indigenous poultry. Conservation of local breeds has been identified as an issue needing attention. Among the local breeds, only the Angoni cattle breed has been characterized and registered with Herdbook Society and 3 commercial farmers are keeping the Angoni breed on a voluntary basis. There are no other indigenous livestock breed conservation programmes in the country. Genetic diversity is slowly eroding and being replaced by high producing breeds that require high management (feeding and disease control) for which the traditional farmer has no capacity. This will further retard sustainable livestock development. There is need therefore for development of AnGR policy in Zambia in line with regional and global agreements. The capacity to market the livestock is increasingly becoming important. Livestock Marketing was identified as an issue. Traditional farmers are taking a more market oriented outlook as people are being asked to pay for a wide range of services from health to education. Small scale producers who want to sell their livestock or livestock products face competition from cheap imports or local intensive, grain fed livestock systems which are on the increase partly due to the availability of cheap grain imported from countries that subsidize their agriculture. Barriers affecting trade in livestock include occurrence of 5

6 sporadic outbreaks of livestock diseases, inadequate market information, poor marketing infrastructure and equipment (roads, abattoirs, market facilities, refrigerated trucks), inadequate local capacity to interpret and apply contents of trade agreements. The result is application of Non Tariff Barriers against Zambian products. There is need for trade policy that will facilitate enhancement of national, Regional and international trade in livestock. There is a big potential to export beef to South Africa which imports in excess of 100,000 tons a year. In the past, beef was exported to Angola, Zaire and Mozambique. The Zairean market was destroyed through dumping of subsidized beef from Europe. Zambia needs to export beef to the region and this requires bilateral agreements. 4.0 National Policy on Farm Animal Genetic Resources There is a Draft Livestock Policy of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MACO) (2001) which aims at improving efficiency of the livestock sector in a sustainable manner and supports marketing of both livestock and livestock products to contribute to food security and income. The specific objectives include promotion of conservation of indigenous livestock genetic resources for sustainable livestock production, particularly in the traditional sector. Through the Department of Veterinary and Livestock Development (DVLD) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MACO), is the Livestock Development Plan (LDP) that outlines strategies. The LDP places AnGR under the newly formed Livestock Development Trust (LDT), a private sector arrangement driven by the Government for promotion of greater private sector involvement in livestock development (2002). The LDP stresses the need for development of a selection programme for indigenous breeds of cattle, sheep and goats in the three agro-ecological zones of Zambia. 4.1 Legislative framework There is no legislation that directly deals with AnGR. The Stock Disease Act limits stock movement in times of disease outbreaks, the Cattle Slaughter Act prohibits slaughter of pregnant heifers and cows. But enforcement of pregnancy diagnosis at abattoirs appears to have lapsed as reproductive wastage is a common feature. In any case these legislations only contain indirect provisions for conservation of AnGR. There is no legislation supporting or discouraging use of any particular species or breeds nationally or in a production system. There is no specific legislation supporting preservation and use of indigenous knowledge, or sharing of benefits derived from AnGR. In the 70s and 80s, there were Government initiatives of crossing exotic cattle, sheep, goats and chickens with local breeds at state ranches and releasing crosses to traditional farmers for breed improvement. Government thus established an Artificial Insemination Centre to promote these activities. With the liberalization policy, these services were 6

7 discontinued. Use of AI and importation of semen is now a voluntary initiative on the part of farmers. Traditional farmers do not have access to AI because of economic considerations. They do not have full access to veterinary service for disease prevention and control because of the same reasons. Livestock husbandry extension to traditional farmers is almost non existent save for a few efforts recently initiated by Golden Valley Research Trust (GART) for its dairy farmers who have bought crossbred dairy animals from GART and also a few farmer groups who have received animals from Heifer Project International (HPI). Livestock marketing infrastructure in traditional land is also lacking. There is an urgent need for legislation to support these activities. 4.2 Conclusion There are a number of AnGR policy issues identified by the methodology employed by GRPI. AnGR are of global concern because they are critical to sustainable livelihood. AnGR just as PGR require immediate action to improve its management. The relevant articles to AnGR are in the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) and Biosafety Protocol under CBD, FAO Global Strategy for the management of FAnGR Framework for establishing National, Regional and Global policies, strategies and actions to assist countries in developing their capacity to manage their AnGR. There is need for International Funding Strategy and International Instruments to promote compliance. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources with its objectives of conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA, fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from their use in harmony with CBD for sustainable agriculture and food security is a learning experience. FAO s State of the World FAnGR is a step in the process. References 1. Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives Draft Agricultural Policy 2. Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives Livestock Development Plan. 3. Livestock Development Trust (LDT) Four Year Development Plan FAO, UNDP, GTZ, CTA and SADC Legal and Regulatory Framework for Farm Animal Genetic Resources Workshop Document. 7