Challenges in Livestock Farming: A Case Study of the Libode Community

Introduction

Far reaching, animals age contributes on a fundamental dimension to the occupations of Creatures, particularly controls, offers different central focuses to near to people going from meat, disguises or skin, milk for family use and game plan, also as social employments. The potential for improving components of livelihoods and success through creature's cultivation is basic (Cocks et al., 2016). These troubles routinely join a nonattendance of title deeds to arrive, inadequate records and theories, poor veld condition, variable airs, lacking territory gauge, hurt or deficient system, poor organization and fantastic test for uncommon resources among other trained creature's farmers (Berhanu, 2014)

The troubles looked by creature's owners are setting unequivocal so they normally contrast in dimension of effect as demonstrated by where they occur.

For example, the monetary status of creature's owners and land setting may affect the kind of challenges that tamed creatures' owners may need to oversee or vanquish in progress (McClintock et al., 2014). In urban regions explicitly, tamed creatures' farmers may stand up to disdain from other urban inhabitants.

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In made countries, like the US of America, creatures age in urban zones has by and large been an asking to be refuted point as it is viewed as a prosperity danger. In any case, starting late, due to the localization of sustenance structures, there has been an extension in urban agribusiness, thusly tamed creature's creation is moving indeed into the urban settings anyway it is generally the urban poor who keep tamed creatures as a frame work.

In South Africa, trained creatures age addresses a basic employment elective for some nuclear families and its duty to urban families is logically being perceived (Schiere and van der Hoek, 2001).

In urban locales of South Africa explicitly, neighborhood Regions are told to make Coordinated Advancement Plans (IDPs) which is a strategy for close-by Regions to completely strategize viable improvement ways for each and every urban inhabitant to IDP's are an open entryway for recognizing standard environmental issues to be fathomed at a close-by 3 level including joining and revolving several skills of approach. This has mulled over districts to describe their very own headway plans and focuses. Thusly, IDP's are another sort of organization that ponders natural, fiscal, and social supportability while considering the awkwardness of South Africa's past, at a decentralized measurement.

CHALLENGES ARE FACED BY LIBODE COMUNITY

Animal theft and dog bites

The livestock owners I interview told me about animal theft and dog bites as the key challenge that they face in their livestock. In the past four years there were 121 cattle that were lost in the village because of theft. The interviewee said this statement, "I am not rich, my neighbour is not rich and his neighbour is pour, because people stealing from us now. Now we all suffered because of them". Other people who steal from us are the people we think they are our friends, they steal from you because of you have more cattle than theirs. This is not different to the trend that is happening in other communities (Mashala, 2013). Cattle are stold from the veld while are grazing or at home while are in a kraal. The cattle are mostly stold for meat and other things like to sold them. These stolen cows are found hidden in the forest or they found the body parts like skin, limbs and head the veld while cow is already slaughter as shown in the pictures below:

Dog is the other challenge that livestock owners faces because dog bites their livestock and leave them with diseases that makes them sick. After the dogs bitten the animals the animals get disease and the farm owner they did not have a medicine to help the bitten cow, so the cow will die because of the wound affection. When the cow die the farm owners get a loss the will be no income. The dogs are dangerous in to the cow that are in the veld.

Environmental challenges Risks associated with pollution and disease

This is the secondly challenge that the community faced in their livestock, is the pollution and mainly the ingested plastic and dirty water that caused by the pollution in the community. The interviewee mentioned that their cattle drink all sources of water clean water and contaminated water. These animals are seen eating plastics from the dirty places that are all over place, these plastics makes the cattle to die because of plastic ingestion. These open sources of water are often used by livestock which leads to death due to diseases such as E. coli, bacterium found in contaminated water which causes diarrhoea and infections (In my research this I found that, the same challenge happened in rural communities of the Post st Jonhs, as plastic ingestion was a major concern.

DROUGHT AND LACK OF GRAZING MATERIAL

In general livestock of the Libode community graze in one veld. The are those time when veld is being dry livestock need to be sent to the commonage. The interviewee said, they get a good grazing season in summer but in winter there is a scarcity of water and the veld are being dry. They face the challenge of drought during the winter season, that needs them to send their cattle in the commonage, some of livestock owners send their cattle in the commonage some they don't, because of they don't have of theft in the commonage. Those who has fear to send their livestock to the commonage they face a challenge of their animals dies because of drought. It is not easy for them to find an alternative way to feed their cattle in winter.

There were those few livestock owners they were able to buy Lucerne for their livestock to eat in the dry season, but those did not afford to buy Lucerne they cannot afford to watch their cattle losing weight and dying because of drought and hope of they survive in the next season Spring. The rotational grazing provides food in the commonage so that the livestock can be fed. Not all livestock owners were in support of taking their livestock to the commonage. Because those owner of livestock are sending their livestock to commonage they face the problem of their livestock come back home not the same number because of theft in the commonage. The livestock owner who send their livestock in the commonage are those who has experience or those are sending them for the second or third time to the commonage. Then the livestock owners they discovered that the is a lack of trust in the livestock owner in the commonage. These livestock owners did not send their livestock in the commonage they need to earn trust from those who has experience in the commonage. They reveal that there's a lack of security in the commonage that is challenge they faced. As shown in the picture bellow

Drought in Libode Community VS Livestock theft from commonage

Technical support for Farmers

The technical support is needed by livestock farming is fencing, dipping and vaccination of the livestock, that support should be provided by the municipality, but none of it is provide by the municipality off Libode this is also a challenge we faced, that said by the interviewee. Livestock owners also face challenges with regard to the lack of grazing and water resources (Rota & Sidahmed, 2012). The dipping facility are far away from our live stock, and the livestock need to walk more than 4.4 kilometer to get in the dipping facilities, that violates the livestock rights. Fencing can reduce or can prevent the theft that happening to their cattle or livestock. Vaccinating can help their animals from the disease that they get from dog bites and from eating dirty things. Livestock can help the farm owners to know what disease that their cattle are having. But none of these happening because of they live in rural areas. They asked the municipality for help then most livestock owners stated that help with vaccinations would lift off the burden of the costs as most livestock owners were not formally employed and livestock keeping was their only means of securing a livelihood. The Nyandeni municipality did not offered any help for these livestock owners, what they know is to ask us to vote while they are helping with our livestock.

That how they walk with their livestock so that they can dip them for disease and pests control.

PERCEPTIONS

In the survey that I did with livestock owners I seen that these are serious challenges that they face and the are other places in the country that faces the same challenges. The theft of livestock and dog bite of cattle it is the serious challenge that the Nyandeni municipality need to take care off, by provide fancies or fencing for the livestock. If the farmer and the veld are well fence the will be a decrease in the animal theft because animals will be safe. The livestock owners should employ a shepherd or security, so that they can look after the livestock and veld or farm yard. This will make dog to not enter in the farm, the cattle will never be eaten by dog but its only municipality can help these farmers.

Water and ingesting plastics are the serious challenge but by fencing that can be reduced, and the government must provide the dustbins so that these plastics and rubbish must be putted in those dust bins and crow way from animals. The dirty of water should controlled by the livestock owners, for example by removing E. coli and fungus in the water by their hands. The shortage of water in the winter need farmers work with municipality agricultural managers to provider water reservoir in the summer when there's rain doing that for winter.

There's also a drought which means lack of food for livestock in winter season, the farmers must beg municipality to provide a tight security in the commonage veld, so that the will be no animal theft in there. And they should make sure that the security they put there they can be trusted. If they can do that the challenge of drought can decrease as well the municipality the should be an amount of feed must provide in each community during dry season to prevent the loss of livestock owners. A suggestion made in the study done by (Nongcula, 2017) was that there is a need to be aware of the stocking rates allowed in the study area in order to understand what the role of overgrazing is which is coupled with climate variability. For this it can come out that the Libode forming is over grazing the animal. They need to be told about over grazing and grazing rotation.

Conclusion

The community farm owner must go and beg the Nyandeni municipality to provide them with the equipment they need and them what challenges they face and what are the outcomes of these challenges. The lack of support from the municipality increased the mortality rate that can be reduced if they did support the community when they asked for help. They need to work together so that they can be successful. When people work together there will be a good result on their work. They can overcome these challenges they face without including the government resource. Given that the expected increase, rising financial gain and inflated urbanization in African countries, associate degree understanding of production challenges in an urban and rural setting has relevancy once puzzling over eutherian development and support (Berhanu, 2014)