Speech delivered at the symposium on Animal Identification and Recording Systems for Tracebility and Livestock Development in African Countries by the Honourable Senzeni Zokwana, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, South Africa, at the CSIR International Conference Centre, Pretoria
Master of ceremonies, thank you for affording me this opportunity to stand in front of this august gathering. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Country Representative, Dr Tobias Takavarasha, Captains of industry, distinguished guests and delegates, a warm welcome to South Africa and to Pretoria, home to a wide range of institutions that provide key inputs to the livestock industry in South Africa, including animal identification, recording and evaluation services.
Pretoria and the broader Tshwane is home to some of the most important institutes and organisations that serve the livestock industry from the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute (OVI) in the north to the Agrucultural Research Council (ARC) Animal Improvement Institute in the south. The Onderstepoort campus also includes the Faculty of Veterinary Science of the University of Pretoria as well as Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) that supplies vaccines of critical importance to the health of the National herd and herds beyond our borders.
To the east, we have the University of Pretoria’s Department of Livestock and Wildlife Sciences and the Red Meat Research and Development Trust as well as the nearby homes of the Red Meat Producers’ Organisation (RPO), the SA Feedlot Association, the Abattoir Association, the National Emergent Red Meat Producers’ Organisation (NERPO) and the Red Meat Industry Forum.
The ARC Animal Production also manages the National Livestock Base, the INTERGIS (Integrated Registration and Genetic Information System) as well as the National Animal Recording and Improvement schemes that include Kaonafatso ya di Kgomo, a scheme that caters for beef cattle farmers from the developing sector.
In addition to being the legislative centre for animal health and production, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries also manages the National Animal Identification System. While the system is more focused on permanent unique owner marks a first step in the fight against stock theft, it is also an owner’s link to individual animal identification and related services.
The reality of animal agriculture in Africa, south of the Sahara
A large part of sub-Saharan Africa is prone to seasonal dry periods and periodic droughts and is only really suitable for some form of animal production and of natural vegetation that also varies in quality and quantity. Climatic factors such as temperature and humidity also make the region an ideal breeding ground
for a range of animal diseases and parasites and this is being aggravated by gradual climatic and vegetation changes that include rising temperatures, decreasing rainfall and a move from a grassland to a savannah-woodland biome in many areas.
Despite this, however, animal agriculture is one of the most economically important (if not the most important) activity on the subcontinent and many countries are in the fortunate position of still having a number of breeds and species that are capable of producing under these conditions. In fact, the most successful and sustainable livestock farming systems include those that use indigenous locally adapted and locally developed breeds.
Animal identification and recording
It is, therefore, not really necessary to introduce any other breeds to the subcontinent. We have all the genetic material we need, however, in order to get the best from these resources and in order to combine the good qualities of more than one breed in crossbreeding programmes, one must be in a position to identify individual animals and measure and evaluate traits such as fertility, growth and the production of meat, milk and fibre.
This information has to be processed into a form that the farmer, stock owner and keeper can use to make informed decisions on breeding to select the best herd and flock sires and to get rid of less productive animals. All of this requires a user friendly and credible animal identification, recording and evaluation system.
South Africa does have an infrastructure titled Integrated Registration and Genetic Information System, commonly known as INTERGIS, to cater for animal recording, identification and traceability. INTERGIS was developed with huge public resources in order to provide animal owners (stud, commercial and developing farmers) in South Africa with a cost-effective means of combining performance recording and genetic information to identify and use superior breeding animals for animal improvement for conservation through utilisation and for national food security. It is believed that the INTERGIS module for traceability could immediately address both animal identification and traceability.
Plans are already underway and agreements are in place to utilise INTERGIS for a number of SADC member states, with the intention of rolling it out to the entire SADC subregion.
Traceability—farm to consumer information
In addition, the market is becoming more demanding with regard to guarantees on the origin and safety of products such as meat and milk and even the welfare status of the animals. Consumers want to know where their meat is coming from and many want to be assured that the animals had a good life. Others require assurances on the fodder system—with a growing demand for grass-fed products and these guarantees can only be given with full production/value chain traceability from the farm to the consumer.
Plans are at an advanced level to improve our existing legislation on animal identification, to make it compulsory and user friendly. Animal traceability is an important part of this imitative to ensure compulsory animal identification and traceability. These will also help us with not only animal ownership but also individual animal identification, curbing animal theft, disease management and general public health.
Accurate livestock statistics
The issue of accurate statistics has been included in countless documents on livestock development and there are many national and regional policies and strategies highlighting the importance of livestock numbers, ratios of males to females, birthing figures and mortalities. Without this, it is almost impossible to identify problems from an animal health and production perspective—and even more difficult to plan any interventions to rectify these.
A lack of credible information, particularly on health issues, also has a negative impact on the trade in livestock and livestock products very often to the detriment of all livestock producers, owners and keepers
Unfortunately, this is often not seen as a priority by funders and developers with the result that we still need reliable and compatible animal identification and recording systems in many areas—even if this is just to be able to measure the performance of indigenous and locally adapted breeds, with the improvement of production efficiency and climate smart animal agriculture in mind.
It is also becoming more difficult to market livestock products without a reliable traceability system and this is largely dependent on a sound individual animal identification system.
This event has, therefore, come at a time when animal identification and recording has been highlighted as one of the most important factors in improving production efficiency and when full product traceability is becoming a prerequisite for local, regional and intercontinental trade.
I commend all those involved - the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR), the ARC, SA Stud book and my own department—in this intervention.
Important past and present initiatives linking to this event
In December 2012, South Africa hosted an African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) Regional Workshop on the Trade of Livestock and Livestock Products and Livestock Identification and Traceability.
Resolutions of this workshop included the establishment of a regional market information system, the regionalisation of Livestock Identification and Traceability systems (LITS) and the development of an affordable and national LITS.
It is now time to consolidate all the hard work that has been done.
The global agenda of action in support of sustainable livestock development
This three-day symposium also links to one of the key legs of the Global Agenda an initiative with actions by a wide range of stakeholders from the private and public sectors, civil society, research institutions and inter-governmental organisations, all committed to the sustainable development of the livestock sector.
The agenda focuses on three areas—closing the efficiency gap, restoring value to grasslands and moving towards zero discharge. Animal identification and recording are key components in the improvement of production efficiency, particularly when it comes to the selection of animals that make the best use of available resources without any harmful effects on the environment. This calls for reliable information that has been processed from the data collected.
This symposium
This symposium can be seen as a further step—focusing on the importance of such systems in livestock development on the subcontinent. You have a comprehensive programme that looks at key issues such as the OIE standards for AIT, AIT in international trade, ICAR standards and guidelines for animal identification and performance recording ensuring that all the key issues will be dealt with, from the identification of individual animals and basic recording of births and mortalities to the use of recorded data for a wide range of activities, including genetic information that can be used for animal improvement and consumer information on the origin and safety of the product as well as the welfare of the animals concerned .
Given the role that South Africa is playing in promoting performance recording in the region and by virtue of being the only ICAR member in the region, we would like to express our desire to host the next ICAR meeting in the near future.
It is always good when a well-thought out plan comes together and this event can be seen as such an occasion. I wish you well with the symposium and I look forward to receiving a copy of the proceedings, including a clear way forward for livestock development in sub-Saharan Africa.
I thank you.
