18 Aug 2014

The Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi says his ministry is expecting surplus cereal crop produce this year.

Speaking during the thanks giving ceremony in Sefhophe recently, Mr Molebatsi said the nation’s demand for cereal crops such as sorghum, millet and maize, which were basic cereal food for Batswana was 200 000 tons.

He said according to yield expected, the country would have more produce by end of the harvest season. Assistant Minister Molebatsi indicated that the ISPAAD programme had attributed to this year’s played good yield. He said government invested a lot of funds in the ISPAAD initiative to help improve agronomy and crop yield.

He also noted that the area received an average of 405 mm rainfall this year compared to 144 mm and 258 mm of rains received respectively in the two previous years.

He also commended farmers for working hard and taking advise from ministry’s officers to utilise prescribed methods under ISPAAD when ploughing such as tilting the soil before planting, using fertilizers and insecticides, using the row planting technique when planting and cultivating their fields as well as removing weeds.

He said he was informed that farmers around the area who used the row planting method produced as much 65 bags of hybrid maize and 41 bags of sorghum per hector which he described as a good yield.

He further urged subsistence farmers to take field crop farming seriously and to always aim to produce a surplus in order to sell and gain income. Meanwhile the Farmers Committee Chairperson Mr Gabodumelwe Maphane commended government for introducing the ISPAAD programme saying through the initiative, farmers have reaped a good yield this year.

He said this year around 861 farmers ploughed their fields out of which 551 were women and 310 were men. He said 2505.7 hectares had been ploughed.

He said 65.53 tons of millet, 58.99 of maize, 404.81 of sorghum, 19.7 of beans, .657 of groundnuts 187.12 of water melons and 3.2 tons of sunflower among others were produced.

For his part, the Central District Crop Production Officer, Mr Bapsy Jibichibi commended farmers for the good yield and urged them to aim to commercialize to gain income from their produce.

He also advised farmers to plan before ploughing their fields on what crop to plant, where to plant and when to start preparing their fields and planting their crops.

He also urged farmers to de-bush their fields and remove trees to avoid having birds nesting on such trees and divulging their crops. Further, the officer advised farmers to engage in group or cluster fencing. He also indicated that the government has introduced the individual fencing scheme where farmers will contribute a certain amount towards the initiative.

The event was organised by the Department of Crop Production in Selebi Phikwe in collaboration with field crop farmers from the Selebi Phikwe, Tobane, Mmadinare, Sefhophe areas.

The occasion was held under the theme, ‘Adhering to extension messages for better yield.’ Ends