The importance of agricultural information

We have written previously about the many queries we receive every week, and thought we’d do so again: many of the queries are common, and if one person is asking the question, you can be sure that there are several who are thinking it but uncertain about where to find the answer.

We have written previously about the many queries we receive every week, and thought we’d do so again: many of the queries are common, and if one person is asking the question, you can be sure that there are several who are thinking it but uncertain about where to find the answer.

A question

SDM wrote: “Hello, I’m from Durban. My goats suddenly died after a short time of getting a stomach pain, it takes about one or two days before it dies. When it dead I cut the stomach and see what is wrong I found out there is too much water inside the stomach. Please help me I would like to know what is this illness and what medication I can inject my goats to prevent it”.

The response

We responded:

We only do the website, and are not knowledgeable about goat diseases. I found the state vet details in Durban: Dr S.Dhanilall, 031-3289300, 0795061991 shavetha.dhanilall [at] kzndard.gov.za 40 Dr Xuma Street, 17th Floor Commercial City Building, Durban. Try him. There are also others at Hilton, Stanger, Ixopo and elsewhere. See https://www.kzndard.gov.za/images/Documents/AnimalHealth/VETERINARY-SERVICES-CONTACT-DETAILS—2016.pdf.

There are other people at the department headquarters who may also be able to help you: see https://www.kzndard.gov.za/about-us/office-of-the-hod

There is a department of agriculture brochure about diseases in sheep and goats at https://www.nda.agric.za/docs/Infopaks/Respiratorydiseases.pdf if you want to see if there is any help from that.

I can’t help you more than that.

Best wishes.

The case for agricultural information

What a pleasure it is when an arm of government like the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (KZNDARD) has a functioning, up-to-date website! Provincial governments should take a leaf from KZNDARD’s copybook, as the proverb goes.

Agricultural information is vital. People need to know where to access products and services. Often there is help – but few know about it. This project began from the place of meeting people’s need to know things. If they cannot access what you offer, you may as well not be offering it in the first place!

Photo by Christopher Ott on Unsplash