By Dennis Ndlovu I Zim GBC News<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2025 report from the Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee (ZimLAC) identifies a sign of escalating poverty and weakened resilience in the countryside as two-thirds of Zimbabwean households are without cattle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The survey, which covered every province, confirmed alarmingly low levels of livestock possession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAbout 66% of the households did not own any cattle,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ownership of substantial herds is even rarer, with a mere 12% of homes having more than five head of cattle. Compounding the problem, 11% of communities indicated their animals were in poor health, pointing to insufficient veterinary services and declining pastureland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The condition of grazing areas is a major concern for sustaining existing herds. During the survey period, 39% of communities described pasture availability as fair, while 45% gave the same rating for pasture quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The survey also uncovered major differences in cattle ownership from one region to another. Mashonaland West was the most severely affected, with 73% of households having no cattle, closely followed by Manicaland and Mashonaland Central at 71% each. The figures for other provinces were Mashonaland East (70%), Matabeleland South (69%), Matabeleland North (60%), Midlands (59%), and Masvingo (57%). These regional disparities point to uneven access to livestock support and economic opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The value of livestock showed significant variation across districts, influenced by local market factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe highest cattle prices were reported in Insiza (US$506) and the lowest were reported in Bulilima (US$191),\u201d ZimLAC noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A comparable trend was seen with goats, which sold for as much as US$51 in Insiza and as little as US$20 in Mbire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beyond agriculture, the report gauged public health knowledge and access to2 essential services. While 72.6% of communities had learned about rabies, awareness of other illnesses was low; just 6.1% had received information on listeria, making it the most poorly recognized disease in the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A disconnect was found between receiving alerts and acting on them, as 52.2% of households got early warning information, but only 39.3% used it for planning. Nationally, 59.4% of homes were reached by health and nutrition outreach programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a positive note, 58% of families reside within 5 kilometers of a health facility, meeting the recommended distance for basic care. Nonetheless, access remains a challenge for remote areas, with 9% of households facing a journey of over 10 kilometers to medical services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Access to education was more robust, with 72% of households having a primary school within a 5km radius. In other findings, 47% of homes had access to information on support for victims of physical and sexual abuse. For 39% of households, police services were within an hour’s reach, and 46% said these services were victim-friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ZimLAC findings present a concerning overview of rural life in Zimbabwe, highlighting profound economic struggles alongside significant shortfalls in public services and information dissemination. The data signals a pressing requirement for focused action to support livestock farming, healthcare, and community education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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ZIMGBC News<\/strong> | Global News From An African Perspective\u00a92025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Dennis Ndlovu I Zim GBC News The 2025 report from the Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee (ZimLAC) identifies a sign of escalating poverty and weakened resilience in the countryside as… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9715,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9713\/revisions\/9715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}