mbulelo smpofu
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
A local Non-Governmental Organisation, Women and Land in Zimbabwe (WLZ), is set to launch community training programmes focused on donkey fodder production, a crucial initiative aimed at enhancing the welfare of the local donkey population.
This initiative comes at a critical time as the donkey population in the country continues to decline, significantly impacted by the El Niño-induced drought and various other factors, including abuse and injuries.
Unlike cattle, which have long been regarded as symbols of status, donkeys have historically been associated with poverty, often surrounded by misconceptions and myths.
In an interview, WLZ Projects Co-ordinator, Mr Prince Ndhlovu said with the support and funding from the United Kingdom (UK) based organisation Donkey Sanctuary’s Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund (CERF) they were implementing a donkey welfare project.
“The project started last year in October and is running for a period of 48 months to October 2025. The goal of the project is to empower donkey owners and users to uphold high standards of donkey welfare and particularly coming from a gender perspective focusing on the axis between the donkeys and rural women,” he said.
He said the project was being implemented in five districts that are Nkayi, Bubi, Gwanda, Mwenezi and Beitbridge, while the highest number of donkeys was confined to Beitbridge and Mwenezi as well as southern part of Gwanda.
Mr Ndhlovu said as part of implementation of the project they were rolling out community trainings on donkey fodder production as an alternative to curb their hunger deaths.
He added: “The outcomes of the project are improving and reducing the abuse of donkeys and promoting proper and high standards of donkey welfare, availability of fodder during the dry season and enhancing the access to drinking water for donkeys. From a policy perspective, donkeys are excluded from the definition of livestock in the country with main animal law that looks at the welfare of donkeys being the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.”
Mr Ndhlovu said the care of donkeys in the country was not the same as of other forms of livestock as they generally tend to be neglected in most programmes.
He said the continued perpetration of violations of donkey welfare across the country by the owners themselves, users or generally the communities where the donkeys are found was a worrisome trend.
“This comes from the inherent cultural practices that this is an animal that has mainly been associated with poverty. As WLZ we have built three robust donkey feed storage units near irrigation schemes that help to supply local farms with water. The crops surrounding the irrigation schemes will be used to create donkey fodder, helping to ensure a sustainable food source,” he said.
Mr Ndhlovu said most communities in the five districts they are working with did not have the capacity to take care of donkeys.
He said they were encouraging people to set up fodder gardens, while three have been done so far in Bubi, Gwanda and Nkayi with the aim of promoting the production of fodder that will be used for feeding the donkeys during the dry season.
“We have also drilled three boreholes one in each district of Gwanda, Bubi and Nkayi to ensure there is access to drinking water for donkey. We are also rolling out awareness campaigns as donkeys die due to various causes such as being hit by vehicles on the national highway, we are sensitising the communities to ensure that they confine them overnight.
“We have some communities where the donkeys were falling prey to predators such as hyenas we have been working with these communities giving them strategies on how they can best take care of the donkeys,” he said.
