11 Aug 2014

The National Beef Cluster Task team conducted a workshop to inform Kgatleng District stakeholders about the government’s decision to adopt the economic cluster development for the country.

The workshop was attended by stakeholders including the Ministry of Agriculture, Botswana Meat Commission, farmers’ syndicates, Botswana National Beef Producers Union and representatives from Botswana College of Agriculture.

When laying down the objectives, task team leader, Mr Leonard Morakaladi said, “in this gathering we have invited all stakeholders that we believe have a role to play in ensuring that this endeavour succeeds.”

He said the workshop was organised to raise awareness, share and create common understanding on the cluster initiative. The other objective he said was to facilitate the move to start the process of establishing a beef cluster and elect a steering team for the district.

Mr Morakaladi, who is also a farmer at Sandveldt Ranches, told stakeholders that three pilot areas have been identified with Mmafuditshe, which is in the Kgatleng District, being one of them. The others are Ghanzi and Sandveldt.

For her part, Agricultural Hub Director from the Ministry of Agriculture, Ms Mmadima Nyathi said the cluster will bring along with it more advantages. Ms Nyathi said clusters provide economies of scale especially for Small Micro and Medium Enterprises (SMMEs).

She said through the cluster, the farmers have an “advantage of co-marketing, co-technology development and co-purchasing.” As a result, she said farmers would spend less money. Ms Nyathi said as stakeholders, SMMEs can supply large firms with raw materials hence turning large firms into a source of market for SMMEs.

Botswana Meat Commission’s Executive Manager of Strategy, Projects and Innovation, Dr Stephen Ghanie said the cluster system is a welcome development.

He challenged stakeholders to work together and produce relevant feed locally. Dr Ghanie said by so doing, farmers will lower cost of feeding cattle since feed will be produced locally. He said they should make sure the cluster functions well in balance with the ecosystem.

For their part, most farmers said the conflict still exists between free range animal farmers and ploughing farmers.

They accused the landboard of allocating ploughing fields on their grazing land. Mr Phemelo Kgefane of Malolwane suggested that the cluster should help them with cluster fencing to help control the movement of animals.

When giving a vote of thanks, former Kgatleng West Member of Parliament, Rakwadi Modipane said the cluster initiative is a welcome development.

He urged farmers to turn farming into a business in order to diversify the economy. Mr Modipane tasked the national cluster task team with addressing the cluster fencing issue. Ends