29 Apr 2014

Sandveld ranchers have been advised to take advantage of European Union (EU) compliant prices which are reportedly lucrative. 

Speaking during Sandveld Ranchers Association (SRA) field day recently, Botswana Meat Commission’s head of compliance Ms Boitumelo Mogome-Maseko said the SRA farmers were not compliant with EU standards chiefly because their farms have not been registered as holdings.

Consequently, she urged the ranchers to liaise with BMC district office to facilitate the registration of their farms so that they could conform to the EU standards. 

Ms Mogome-Maseko who is also chairperson of Measles Working Group warned that measles was on the rise and at a cost to the beef industry as the commission lost about P83 million in 2013 due to the outbreak. 

The said beef could not be exported to the EU markets but was kept at BMC at a cost.  On a positive note, Ms Mogome-Maseko revealed that measles control strategy was being developed. 

Because she was privy to the intentions of the strategy, Ms Mogome-Maseko said provision of toilets in the farms forms part of critical components of the strategy. 

Toilets will bar livestock from accessing human excretal which have been found to be a contributing factor towards measles spread. She further pleaded with farmers to treat measles as a national problem contrary to the beliefs that the outbreak was solely a BMC problem. 

For his part SRA chairperson Mr Madongo Direng solicited support from government and the Botswana Confederation of Commerce and Industry Manpower (BOCCIM). This is because as farmers they needed fodder to feed their livestock, a move he observed was costly to them. 

He argued that the country was blessed with water and other resources yet farmers continue to buy animal feeds at exorbitant prices. He subsequently called for the introduction of agricultural loans to farmers by financial institutions. 

He suggested that communal farmers should use quarantines for holding their cattle for the required time. “Why are we invited for Letsema and other platforms when our suggestions and resolutions are not implemented,” Mr Direng said. 

He however, applauded the Ministry of Agriculture for the support to farmers unions. He also extended his gratitude to Barclays Bank for sponsoring SRA with P200 000 annually for three years. 

The host of the field day event Mr Kgosiemang Molosiwa of Morulelo farm appealed to all farmers irrespective of the size of their heads to join the association in huge numbers so that they could speak in one voice. 

Like his chairperson, Mr Molosiwa commended agriculture ministry for their support.  He thus called on all farmers to participate in field days and other events in order to convince sponsors that to continue supporting the initiative. ENDS