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FA R M S K I L L S A F R I C A
WORKING
TOGETHER
FOR A HEALTHIER FUTURE...
15
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
X
LVets is participating in a 42 month project to help improve dairy animal
health and husbandry for farmers in the Manica province of Mozambique.
Eight vets from XLVet member practices have so far successfully attended the
project, which includes Owen Atkinson; here he tells us more about the
project and the training being undertaken.
Africa
Owen Atkinson BVSc CertCHP MRCVS
Lambert, Leonard & May
Training dairy farmers in Mozambique is
very different to training farmers back home.
But wherever you are in the world, a cow
is still a cow and to that extent there is a
common language.
In fact, life in Mozambique is very different,
let alone the training. In this fascinating and
beautiful country of around 22 million people,
life expectancy is only 41 years, and most of
the population live in a grinding poverty
which is hard to imagine for those of us in
affluent Britain. Malaria, tuberculosis and
cholera are endemic and in some areas
around a third of the population is HIV
positive. The country emerged from a
devastating civil war 17 years ago which
destroyed what little infrastructure was in
place previously. Once a Portuguese colony,
the country is at last a democracy and enjoys
a stable enough environment to begin to take
advantage of its large agricultural potential.
I was fortunate to go for two weeks as part
of a collaboration between XLVets FarmSkills
and Land O Lakes International Development.
LOL is a large dairy and feed co-operative
based in North America and its International
Development division has over 20 years'
experience in delivering USAID funded
projects in Africa and other developing
nations. The Mozambique project is almost
unique in that it is an attempt to kick-start a
dairy industry from a base line of nil. That
is to say that there is no culture for milking
cows or consuming dairy products, and so
infrastructure and knowledge are practically
non-existent. My role as an XLVets volunteer
was to help deliver training in animal
husbandry and health to current and
prospective dairy farmers and Community
Livestock Workers (CLW's - rudimentary
‘bare-foot vets’). By dairy farmer, don't be
imagining chaps with milking parlours and
herds of cows; I am talking about men or
women with one, perhaps two cows milked
by hand.
different perspe tive:
dairy
development in Mozambique
Veterinary Surgeon
Owen Atkinson
XLVets Practice
Lambert, Leonard
& May