21 Apr 2014

The Vice President, Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe, says agriculture is a sustainable venture that should be used to eradicate poverty.

Speaking at Matty fields, where he toured farms belonging to some members of Moselle Production Group, Dr Kedikilwe said modern farming techniques should be fully utilised to make the agricultural sector profitable.

Dr Kedikilwe implored farmers to be committed in food production to attain food security and reduce the country’s dependency on imported foods, adding that relying on other nations for food was risky because when such countries encountered food shortages, the supply would stop.

He said by visiting Mmatau lands and performing farm walks around the country, he was demonstrating government’s commitment to the agriculture sector. The Vice President said farmers at Mmatau lands and the Moselewapula Group had demonstrated clearly that row planting could produce better yields compared to the traditional broadcasting method.

He thanked them for forming a production group, which would enable farmers to speak with one voice when tackling their challenges. Dr Kedikilwe was also shown a mould board plough invented by a certain farmer at the lands and pleaded with government official to protect his invented machine so that other people would do not steal his idea.

He assured farmers that those engaged in horticultural production would later benefit from the horticultural plant which he said was in the offing to help with the preservation of perishable products in the SPEDU as well as help with the creation of employment in the area. Farmers complained of pests, quelea birds, weeds and Aphids diseases that destroyed their crops.

For his part, Kgosi Phokontsi Seeletso suggested that Ipelegeng programme should be suspended during plough season to give people time for ploughing.

He said many people had abandoned their fields and now relied on Ipelegeng, adding that people should be encouraged to be self-reliant and desist from depending on government hand-outs.

Moselle group is made up of farmers from Nkwanapedi, Mmatau and Metjana lands in Mmadinare and some of the farms visited included that of Mr Ronny Phofuetsile, Ms Annah Marata and Dikeledi Sephekolo who had planted various crops using row planting technique supported by the Ministry of Agriculture through the ISPAAD programme. ends