The buffalo strength: Soon to take Mozambican agriculture by storm

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The buffalo strength: Soon to take Mozambican agriculture by storm

2:06 CAT | 16 Feb 2018

Notícias

Buffalo could strengthen agriculture in Mozambique, and buffalo milk production may soon start in the country, Notícias reports. Mozambique is already testing the use of buffaloes as agricultural draught animals and will soon start production of buffalo milk for human consumption.

The Estação Zooténica de Chobela, a cattle management research unit in the village of Magude, Maputo province, already has 16 adult and two young buffaloes. A further eight new-borns are expected this year, the institution says.

Avelino Nhate, one of the officials in charge of the station, which is linked to the Mozambique Institute of Agricultural Research (IIAM), explained that the idea was to breed buffalo for farmers to use as draught animals or for the production of their milk, which is very nutritious.

Speaking during the recent visit of Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Luísa Meque, Nhate noted that there were already farmers in Inhambane using buffalo to farm the fields.

He said that buffalo are wetland animals and could be used for rice production in Chókwè, for example, when cattle and tractors could not move because of the deep mud. Buffalo are twice as strong as cattle, weight for weight.

As for worries about buffalo being aggressive, Nhate said there are techniques for controlling their behaviour, even to the point of them living and working side by side with cattle.

The buffalo breeding initiative in Chobela started a few years ago, but there is still no time horizon for the start of animal distribution. The current focus is purely on increasing the number of animals.

The buffalo project is one of several ongoing initiatives in the Magude facility, although it is operating in facilities which are at risk of collapsing at any time.

Faced with these infrastructural condition, the deputy of Agriculture and Food Security acknowledged that the state of the buildings was not compatible with the research conducted there, and said that the government was mobilising financial resources for the rehabilitation of the station.

Source: Notícias