Campaign to protect indigenous cattle breeds on

By Pascal Kwesiga and Anita Atuhaire

A group of pastoralists has launched a campaign to preserve indigenous cattle breeds as more livestock farmers resort to cross and exotic breeds for their high beef and milk production.

Under the coalition for pastoralists’ civil society organizations, the conservationists say the indigenous breeds are facing extinction as farmers turn to cross and exotic cattle breeds for commercial purposes.  

They say indigenous cattle varieties should be preserved because they are part of the cultural heritage of various communities in Uganda.

Indigenous cattle breeds in Uganda include: the long horned Ankole in south western and zebu kept in eastern and northern parts of Uganda.

Indigenous cattle breeds can survive in the harsh environmental conditions and with stand diseases compared to the cross and exotic breeds. Local cattle breeds, however, produce low milk yields. They also have a slow growth rate compared to the cross and exotic cows.

The Food and Agriculture Organization recently reported that at least 20 percent of the world’s estimated 7,600 livestock breeds are in danger of extinction. Often, Government advocates for the cross and exotic cows because of their high beef and milk yields as part of an effort to promote commercial agriculture as compared to large herd of indigenous cattle with low yields.

The director for crop resources in the ministry of agriculture, animal industry and fisheries, Opolot Okasai, said the Government has so far set up two ranches in Ankole and Busoga to preserve Ankole and Zebu indigenous cattle varieties.
"It is a policy of government to preserve indigenous animals and crops and a deliberate effort has been made to that effect,” he added.

 According to Dr. D.K.N Ssemambo, the Executive Director at National Animal Genetic Resources and Data Bank which is charged with responsibility of conserving and breeding of indigenous crop and animal varieties, they have so far procured 4,500 heads of Ankole indigenous cattle breed and 3,000 indigenous goat varieties for preservation.

“We are working with farmers in Ankole and other areas to preserve our local varieties,” she said.

 The cross and exotic breeds, according to Elizabeth Katushabe, the projects officer for the pastoral and environmental network in the horn of Africa, are partly responsible for environmental degradation in Uganda.

“People have been forced to cut down trees and grass to keep exotic and cross breeds of cattle because these cows need a comfortable environment to live. They are even very expensive for the poor farmers," she added.

She was speaking at the launch of the media handbook on pastoralism at Grand Imperial hotel in Kampala on Wednesday.

The pastoralists issued copies of the handbook to journalists to help to enhance their understanding of pastoralism issues.

The campaign to preserve indigenous breeds, the pastoralists said, was conceived after establishing that some European countries like Germany have rolled out similar campaigns to preserve their indigenous cow varieties.

“The chemicals and other antibiotics farmers inject the exotic and mixed cows may be responsible for the diseases we get today. Most farmers do not follow instructions on when to milk or eat meat from an animal that has been injected with antibiotics,” Katushabe said.

She also claimed that scientists in US have developed another breed of cattle using genes from Ankole long-horned cattle.
“We want the Government to help us set up a market for organic and inorganic animal products so that Ugandans can buy what they want,” Katushabe said.

Responding to questions on whether the keeping of large head of cattle is tenable with increasing population and limited land, Katushabe said: “You do not need a lot of land. The time and resources you need to look after exotic cows is far greater than one needs to keep indigenous cows,” the coalition’s coordinator, Benjamin Ntambuka rubbished claims that pastoralism can cause environmental degradation.

“My parents never cut down trees to look after cows as it is with exotic and mixed cows. The indigenous cows do not need special attention and environment to survive,” he noted.

He asked the Government to join the campaign to preserve local breeds. “We all need money but let’s not put money above our heritage. Farmers can keep exotic and indigenous breeds,” Ntambuka added.