22 Jul 2014

The Assistant Minister of Agriculture Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi says the uptake of on-farm artificial insemination by communal farmers has been slow nationwide with only nine farmers successfully participating in the programme. 


Answering a question in Parliament, Mr Molebatsi said so far no one from Shoshong constituency has participated in the programme.

He said the slow uptake is attributed largely to inadequate financial resources on the part of communal farmers to put the required infrastructure such as fencing of an enclosure to control movement of animals.


Mr Molebatsi noted that apart from infrastructure, management of individual farmers, particularly the timely detection of animals on heat, played a critical role for the success of this technique.


He said officers at  Ministry of Agriculture offer a technical advice to anyone who is interested in venturing into on-farm artificial insemination as well as training those who aspire to be inseminators.


On the other hand, he said farmers are loaned government inseminators, if available, when they require such assistance.
He was responding to a question from MP for Shoshong Mr Philip Makgalemele who had asked the minister to state the progress made in the roll-out of on-farm artificial insemination programme targeting communal farmers nationally and in the Shoshong constituency.


Mr Makgalemele also wanted to know the specific support that has been provided to communal farmers in the Shoshong constituency in terms of training, on the job training and technical advice. ENDS