23 Jun 2014

Government will in future give seeds of crops to farmers according to how well a crop performs in a particular area, the Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi has said.

Addressing kgotla meetings in Tswapong north villages recently, Mr Molebatsi said farmers who ploughed under ISPAAD would be encouraged to plough crops that adapted to certain climate conditions and soil types in various parts of Botswana.

Mr Molebatsi said most of the time, farmers did not consider the climate when they chose the crops to plant, oblivious of the fact that the climate had a bearing on crop yield.

Now, government wantsd to put emphasis on the importance of climate as a factor when farmers plant their crops. With this approach, he said, crop yield would increase.

He encouraged small scale farmers to plant in rows, using donkeys as they would also be paid under ISPAAD. He explained that farmers who ploughed with donkeys and did not have planters could row plant using their hands.

He added that some farmers proved that conventional forms of ploughing fields could surpass the modern ways of farming because they used donkeys to plant in rows during the 2013/14 ploughing season.

Mr Molebatsi also encouraged farmers to produce their own food. He said no Motswana should die of starvation. He asserted that farmers could be serious enough to produce bountifully to reduce food imports.

He said it was disappointing to realise that despite large sums of money spent on ISPAAD, farmer got low crop yield because they did not row plant.

Residents of Ngwapa, Moshopha and Letoreng told Assistant Minister Molebatsi that they did not have the equipment that are used to row plant. ENDS