UGANDA – The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation is carrying out mass vaccination of goats, sheep and cattle in the Karamoja region of Uganda against Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) and contagious Bovine Pleuro Pneumonia (CBPP).

The programme is being conducted together with the Government of Uganda. According to Percy Misika, the FAO representative in Uganda, the exercise targets about 1,350,000 cattle and 1,900,000 goats and sheep, a report in All Africa says.

The programme, jointly funded by the UN Central Emergency Response Fund, the government of Ireland, Italy and FAO is costing about $1 million.

Through UN OCHA, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund contributed $700,000, while the government of Ireland gave $116,000 and Italy provided $150,000. The FAO Technical Cooperation Programme contributed $125,000.

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The Goat Commercialisation Programme in the Northern Cape received a R15 million financial injection from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to transform herders into commercial farmers.

Receiveng the donation, at an event held in Grobblersdal in Limpopo Northern Cape Premier Dipuo Peters said the joint initiative between the Department of Agriculture and Land Reform, the IDC and the Kalahari Kid Corporation aims to transform yesterday’s stock herders into active participants of the local and global economies.

Peters said as a province they are seeking to expand the current estimated goat population of over 700 000 by using the available natural resources and marketing opportunities.

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