NANCY SIAME, Lusaka
MINISTER of Livestock and Fisheries Greyford Monde says veterinary camps will be re-demarcated to ensure effective delivery of services in respective camps.
Mr Monde said in an interview recently there are currently over 1,000 veterinary camps and Government has decided to demarcate them into smaller partitions depending on how big a particular camp is.
This will make it easy for veterinary officers to effortlessly reach the farmers whenever there is need.
“Come next year, we want to demarcate the veterinary camps into smaller sections so that our farmers can easily be reached by the officers,” Mr Monde said.
Mr Monde said the officers who will be deployed in the camps will be equipped with accommodation, transport and other logistics to make it easy for them to carry out their duties.
In addition, 300 motorbikes and 22 vehicles have already been bought in readiness for the expansion programme.
Mr Monde said Government also intends to recruit more veterinary officers next year having recruited 500 this year.
“We want to increase capacity and we thought reducing veterinary camps into smaller camps is the best,” he said.
He said Government is aware that there are not many veterinary officers, and recruiting them will be done on a yearly basis as long as funds allow offering more attention to livestock farmers and probably reducing on the disease burden in the country.
Mr Monde said veterinary officers are important as they help monitor animals and ensure that they are always healthy.